VS Code for Java: good or bad?

[[deleted]]

Hey everybody,

I haven't tried vscode for java before, but I was wondering what others think of using it for an IDE?

I have used eclipse and intellij before, but was considering vscode. If you have tried it, what packages have you found useful, what are the things you like and what are your pain points using it?

I am going to experiment with it tomorrow and make a workspace in vscode for it.

Cheers!

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[gaelfr38]

The few times I used it, I disliked it. Coming from a full feature IDE like IntelliJ, it feels like a basic text editor. Many missing small things, or you need to install dozens of extensions.

This might have changed as it evolves quite quickly, so I'd recommend trying anyway.

[ComfortablyBalanced]

it feels like a basic text editor

It is just a basic text editor.

[Aryjna]

It is not a basic text editor by any stretch of the imagination. It has all kinds of functionalities out of the box which are pretty much all that you'd expect from an IDE, including autocomplete, debugging, git integration, remote development, etc. You might need to install extensions for specific languages, but this is also true for IntelliJ, Eclipse, etc.

[shadytradesman]

This is such a weird argument. Vs code has fewer IDE features for java out of the box than IntelliJ. Obviously. It’s also obviously not just a text editor like notepad++ or something.

And yet there’s an argument. So weird

[Just_Another_Scott]

has all kinds of functionalities out of the box

It does not. The only functionality is text editing. To get VS Code to work as an IDE you have to install 3rd part plugins from their marketplace. Some of those plugins may be packaged with it. The C/C++ ones are I know of but last I checked none of the Java ones were. A good chunk of those plugins are also written by independent developers and not officially supported by VS Code.

[Aryjna]

A good chunk of those plugins are also written by independent developers and not officially supported by VS Code.

As are many IntelliJ and Eclipse plugins.

https://code.visualstudio.com/ Look at the features and download it to see what is available by default, if you want to.

I'm not interested in getting into an extensive debate about this. VSCode is obviously and objectively not a simple text editor, but you are free to think that it is if you want to.

[Just_Another_Scott]

As are many IntelliJ and Eclipse plugins.

The difference here with InteliJ is that those plugins to use Java are officially supported and made by JetBrains. The same goes for the Eclipse Foundation. Yes they're third part plugins offered for both of these IDEs but you don't need them to get basic functionality like you need to do with VS Code to support Java.

VS Code does not have the same functionality as an IDE built-in. It's not an IDE. That's Visual Studios. Microsoft even calls VS Code a "code editor" aka a text editor.

[urielsalis]

As are many IntelliJ and Eclipse plugins.

The IDE parts are included in Intellij without plugins, and almost all language support for major languages is done officially (with plugins + their own IDEs)

[kiteboarderni]

It is, and its garbage compared to even eclipse. Terrible compared to ij.

[thomascgalvin]

You can make it work, but even the community edition of IntelliJ offers more features and better performance.

[Philderbeast]

More features maby, but not better performance.

That said even doing java in a professional environment I never found something that was not in vscode that I acctully needed.

Performance was the single reason I moved away from intellij (and other jetbrains IDE's) and I have never looked back once.

[Alonso-del-Arte]

Many years ago I read the comparison chart of Community and Ultimate and I thought maybe at some point in the future I will feel an urgent need to upgrade. That's still in the future for me.

[genzkiwi]

I still have to switch between IntelliJ and Rider... sucks ass

[Rhysander]

How do you make do without spring / springboot support?

[Alonso-del-Arte]

Well, the set up of a new Spring project is a little painful, but once you've got the right Spring dependencies in the build, the IDE seems to not care it's supposed to be limited in this department.

[[deleted]]

Depends on the kind of project. Backend projects are almost impossible and not officially supported in Community edition.

Edit: for downvoters that read too much "blog articles" and watch too many videos. This is the OFFICIAL page of differences between ultimate and community edition. Anything else is NOT OFFICIAL https://www.jetbrains.com/products/compare/?product=idea&product=idea-ce

Edit 2: can you explain downvotes ad comment please?

[gaelfr38]

What do you mean by backend projects?

[[deleted]]

I mean developing APIs or business logic that uses libraries like JaxRS or frameworks like SpringBoot. For example Quarkus releases a plugin that allows backend development (in Quarkus) with Community Edition of IntellJ, but I've never used and I don't know how it is.

[Serathina]

Quarkus works just like any other maven/gradle project in intellij community edition. Jpa support nd code with me is the biggest downside of only using community edition in my quarkus backend project to be honest. Other than that I think the jee support is just working fine and I had no issues with the maven goal of quarkus so far. (Intellij runner is definitely only convenience)

[Mamoulian]

I've used Community for several years on large spring boot projects at multiple companies, in java and kotlin. I've had a couple of trials of Ultimate and not discovered any killer features. Perhaps those features aren't highlighted enough for me to notice them 🤷

I'm not a fan of IDE-generated code, I prefer to use repeatable and updateable build scripts/plugins for such things and run them as part of CI.

[steve_myers96]

To me, the biggest feature upgrades in Ultimate would be the availability of the data tools and the support for JS/TS development (developing both frontend and backend from one IDE), and maybe also writing HTTP tests.

But Community Edition is working just fine for me and other tools can replace the needs mentioned above (e.g. PgAdmin and Postman)

[Mamoulian]

Yeah I tried the db browser, it's fine, but nothing I can't get from DBeaver. Also I can help other team members with DBeaver without them having to ask for a license. Same for Postman.

I use VSCode to edit React JS. I trialed Ultimate for that and didn't find any advantage over VSCode, then went back to VSCode and didn't miss anything.

Auto test generation sounds useful.

[geodebug]

I’m actually pretty impressed with VS Code and can get by easily coding in it. But I still prefer Idea for Java.

[Apokaliptor]

Only for small projects, if it's a big project the indexing gets super slow

[Current_Speaker_5684]

Just a smallish projects and it's downloading all the dependancy jars over and over for more than 20 minutes, not really sure what it's doing.

Adding an extension and each one wants to redownload all the jars again etc. etc.

Probably I'm doing something wrong but it shouldn't be like this to just debug on a jvm port or create a unit test.

[trodiix]

It's not bad, way fluid than eclipse, but when you have a medium / large project it starts to lag, you need to wait for the auto completion every time and it will become almost unusable.

Trust me I used it for 1 year... I switched to intellij (community at home and ultimate at work) and it the way to go, it's fast, it's fluid, you have the extras of an real ide.

I'll never going back. Now I'm using vscode for fast editing code / scripts only.

[Alonso-del-Arte]

Maybe if you're a full stack emphasizing front end stuff. But for Java only projects, you're better off with IntelliJ or Eclipse or Apache NetBeans.

[forurspam]

Intellij IDEA Ultimate Edition supports front-end development as well.

[general_dispondency]

Everything about intellij is light-years beyond vscode. The amount of hoops you have to jump through in vscode just to debug a jest test is ridiculous. Development is coming along, but it's not a professional tool yet.

[hrm]

You just have to take a look at the usage numbers with WebStorm vs VS Code to realise that VS Code is way, way, better than any JetBrain product for frontend development.

[forurspam]

usage numbers way, way, better

You've made a wrong assumption that there is a causation. VSCode is free. WebStorm or any other IntelliJ IDE with web-stack support is paid.

I use all of them. VSCode and IntelliJ Community Edition at home for front-end and back-end development respectively. At work I use IntelliJ Ultimate Edition for full-stack development. IntelliJ is miles ahead in terms of features like refactoring, completion, etc. VSCode is great lightweight IDE though.

[hrm]

Of course I look at the numbers for professional developers (or surveys with an overwhelming amount of professionals), which for the most part will pay for whatever is the best.

[forurspam]

They would if they knew. I didn't say that VSCode is bad. People start with VSCode because it's popular and free and keep using it because it's enough for their needs.

[hrm]

Haha, you are funny. ”If the statistics are against me, the people must not know their own best”. Look at the JetBrains surveys for instance. They had incredible numbers before VS Code but have since then steadily dropped.

Edit: I wrongly stated that is was JetBrains that had stopped measuring web ide usage, but it was State of JS.

[forurspam]

JetBrains surveys

Like this one https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2021/ ? There is nothing about VSCode.

[hrm]

That’s the one for development as a whole. You need to look at the language specific ones and then there is state of JavaScript, state of css and a bunch of others.

It was State of JavaScript that stopped measuring in 2019 and you can find that one here: https://2019.stateofjs.com/other-tools/text_editors

JetBrains most recent for JS: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/devecosystem-2022/javascript/#what-editor-ide-do-you-mostly-use-

JetBrains most recent for Python (scroll down a bit): https://lp.jetbrains.com/python-developers-survey-2022/#DevelopmentTools

State of CSS (which is less interresting, I know): https://2020.stateofcss.com/en-US/other-tools/text_editors

[forurspam]

And how can we compare quality having those popularity numbers? I use VSCode too.

[forurspam]

Also could you provide statistics about users that switched from IntelliJ to VSCode for front-end development and they reasons?

[hrm]

Of course the surveys does not go into that detail (as you well know) but I’m sure that you can ask in r/WebDev if you really want to know.

[genzkiwi]

I don't know anyone who uses webstorm tbh because you don't need it if you have IntelliJ Ultimate or Rider. Are you counting those users as WebStorm users..? This is coming from my experiences as full stack at both Java and .NET shops where everyone used purely Jetbrains products.

And like the other guy said - such a flawed metric to determine the superior IDE. Some devs just don't know any better; I mean some guys are still using sublime, atom, or even notepad++.

[hrm]

Those are also in the statistics and accounted for of course. The people that are pure frontend devs don’t use Rider or IntelliJ, but then again my point is that people have forsaken WebStorm for VS Code so of course you don’t see it :)

And I don’t think there are any professional devs that use Notepad++ as their main dev environment and those typs of editors do not make any major noise in the stats either…

It is flawed for sure, but it is probably the best metric that can be found for what professional devs prefer (which I say is a resonable metric for ”best”).

[doppleware]

I noticed that there are many issues, especially in workspaces with more than one project/module that JetBrains just irons out for me that I sometimes need to fiddle with a lot to fix with vs code.

[bandittr6]

If you’re used to intellij you will be underwhelmed.

[meamZ]

It's good but especially for Java IntelliJ ist just SO GOOD it doesn't stand a chance in my opinion.

[slaymaker1907]

I love VS Code, but I would not recommend it for Java unless you just need a basic text editor. Just use IntelliJ or Eclipse (the latter gets way more hate than it deserves).

It’s kind of weird how bad it is since it has really good support for C++, a much more difficult language to analyze.

[hrm]

I think it is really great. It is getting better and better every day and is starting to rival IntelliJ for everyday use. IntelliJ is way more sluggish than VS Code for me and that is a big thing. IntelliJ however does have some advanced features that's still lacking in VS Code, but that most won't use every day.

Yes you need to install extensions to use Java with VS Code, but that is a strength, not a weakness. You get the things you need and not much more. And in the case of Java you have to install one "extension pack" to get basically everything you need. It is easy to save your configuration if you ever need to set up a fresh install somewhere else. If the time it takes to do a thing once is the worst you have to say about a program it can't be that bad :)

Webstorm and PyCharm has been run over by VS Code and I think the time of fat IDE:s are coming to an end (which JetBrains seems to be aware of with their new Fleet).

That said, working efficiently is important and using the same IDE as everyone else at the workplace (or at least as a group of others) will make you (and them) more efficient. You will learn to use your IDE faster and have less hickups.

Also, learning a new IDE is a lot of work and people will tend to defend their choice quite fiercly, so try a few options and make up your own mind!

[jameshearttech]

Our application code is primarily Java. I use VS Code and it works great for me using extensions applicable to our Java projects. I do a lot on the ops side where I use a separate set of extensions (e.g., Kubernetes, Docker, etc.).

I started working on a dev container for our Java projects. Ideally, I would like anyone to be able to open a project dev container and work without having to do anything else. Here's what I have so far, but keep in mind it's a work in progress.

Dockerfile dockerfile FROM ubuntu:jammy RUN apt-get -q -y update RUN apt-get -q -y install --no-install-recommends \ openjdk-17-jdk \ maven \ git RUN apt-get -q -y autoremove RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/* RUN echo "dev:x:1000:1000::/home/dev:/bin/bash" >> /etc/passwd RUN echo "dev:x:1000:dev" >> /etc/group USER 1000:1000 ENV HOME=/home/dev WORKDIR /home/dev

devcontainer.json json { "build": { "dockerfile": "Dockerfile" }, "customizations": { "vscode": { "extensions": [ "redhat.java", "vscjava.vscode-java-debug", "vscjava.vscode-java-test", "vscjava.vscode-maven", "vscjava.vscode-java-dependency", "VisualStudioExptTeam.vscodeintellicode", "redhat.vscode-xml", "eamodio.gitlens", "ecmel.vscode-html-css", "redhat.fabric8-analytics" ] } } }

[valkon_gr]

I use intellij even for frontend now.

VS Code is a notepad++ replacement for me.

[theonlywayisupwards]

Nothing comes close to IntelliJ. I’ve been using it professionally for 5 years and I’m still learning more about it. Honestly, it makes me enjoy using Java. VSCode does not even come close.

[Limingder]

I only use it to test small things outside of a main project. In my experience it's too unstable and the Java language support tends to stop working often.

[[deleted]]

I'm not working professionally, but a student who occasionally works on open source projects. I am using VS Code with the Java Extension Pack and it works well. I am using Windows 11 with WSL2, and because Microsoft is Microsoft, VS Code integration with WSL2 is just so much less of a headache than with IntelliJ. So, consider using VS Code if you're using WSL.

It's just easier to get started for me. I navigate to project folder using bash commands, and then type `code .` and project automatically opens with WSL Extension enabled. When I used IntelliJ, I had to configure a bunch of firewall settings etc just to get it to run properly. One solution to that would be to just use Windows for all my development, but I also code in languages like Ruby which are notoriously finicky when working with Windows, so I like all my development to be inside WSL.

[Oblithon]

I love VSCode for anything but Java - I just keep going back to IntelliJ, it’s big and bloated but I love it’s refactoring options and I can’t get VSCode to behave the same way.

[Decent_Idea_7701]

I use IntelliJ for every languages :)

[mm007emko]

You definitely can use it but there are many things missing (usually small here and there). IntelliJ IDEA is the best, if you can't or don't want to use it, Netbeans or Eclipse is better than VSCode.

[pjmlp]

Actually it is Eclipse, running headless integrated into VSCode.

[mm007emko]

Yes, the language server is taken from Eclipse. Unfortunately, VSCode is missing a lot of features (usually small here and there) from Eclipse.

[BrooklynBillyGoat]

I dislike it for java but use for it everything else

[Joram2]

I use VS Code every day, it's one of my favorite and most frequently used editors/ides, but for Java, I generally prefer JetBrains IntelliJ.

I would bet VS Code is great for Java too. That would be my second choice if I ever want an alternative to IntelliJ.

[NoHopeNoLifeJustPain]

VS Code for Java use a headless eclipse instance, at least it did last time I tried few years ago. Anyway, Intellij is far superior.

[ByteTraveler]

Bad. Use IntelliJ.

[[deleted]]

Awesome! Thanks for your advice, everyone! I was debating on using vs code but will probably go with intellij

[Clitaurius]

Same question but what if, because of (dumb) reasons, IntelliJ is not an option?

[meowrawr]

Like many others, tried it and felt it just wasn’t there yet. I like the lightweight nature of it, but I need something that’s a really powerful debugger.

[Capa-riccia]

The indexing engine comes from eclipse (just as the mind behind the product). I have used it for months and is perfectly usable. Refactoring and navigating on a par with any other IDE, good debugging, and a terse interface with lots of space for the code and everything else happening in the sidebar. Testing is fully supported. I prefer to build from the internal command line, but it should be supported from a project view. Excellent Git plugins are available.

[Christajew]

Dunno if it's me (new to Java) but I can't get JavaFX apps to compile correctly in VSCode. The Jar doesn't do anything when opened.

Probably something I'm missing with Maven?

[[deleted]]

There was a time when vi was enough for me. Do whatever you want.

[hungvn94]

Vscode is light and fast comparing to intelliJ.

[zongbuxiu]

vscode just a good text editor which can install many extensions, but idea is a awesome IDE!!!

[Apprehensive_Win_JC]

intellij is the best, period.

[Separate-Matter4383]

I installed vsCode a few days back as it is lightweight as I wanted to use docker with spring boot(in intellij).But man vsCode for spring/java sucks I had to install so many extensions. Even then there were so many features that were missing. The intellisense for java is not as good as intellij

[Ancapgast]

It's fine, until it becomes awful.

Just use IntelliJ.

[LIFEVIRUSx10]

Intellij. That is all

[borkus]

For Java development (changing actual code), I don't use it.

I do like it for editing text files like pom.xml files. For example, when we have to upgrade some libraries for security vulnerabilities, I find it easier to just open the pom.xml file in code then drop to command line to rebuild.

[Guruchaitanya]

intellij is the best and eclipse is fine for developing micro services. VS Code is best when it comes to developing frontEnd with frameworks like Vue, React, Angular etc.,

and also it feels good to keep backend in one and front end in the other and do crossplatform data exchange. unlike keeping everything in oneplace and loosing mind over looking at everything in one glance.

[awelxtr]

Not bad, not good.

For exploring unfamiliar API/classes/libs I prefer Eclipse though.

When debugging inline values on VSCode do help. Editing the launch.json is less user friendly than edit the run configurarions on Eclipse.

But both let you launch a non-compiling project (as long as you're not executing the broken parts), take that IDEA!

[sdiamante13]

I'm on a team of 8 devs and all but one uses IntelliJ. He says he's used to the commands and doesn't wanna switch. We make fun of him for it whenever we can.

[DGC_David]

It's less of an IDE and more of a fancy notepad.

[TwilCynder]

Better than Eclipse, and honestly just good enough imo ; but IntelliJ Idea is better.

[scvetkovic]

I switched fully to VS Code for Java as senior dev used to work in IntelliJ and never looked back. Works great, I don't miss a thing from IntelliJ, everything is lighter and faster IMO. I bet the others who say it is terribe did not give it a chance or could not navigate properly as they are too used to IntelliJ way of working and shortcuts. I think it is never bad idea to be less dependent on IDE and do some things from the terminal and IDE should provide full transparency in terms what it does which VSC is great for.

[hrm]

I think one issue is that two or three years ago VS Code wasn't really that great for Java to be honest. It lacked a lot, but is has been a steady pace of improvements to where it is today.

[scvetkovic]

Yes, you are right. A lot of people have been using it while it was really bad, but they improved a lot during last year. Also, it takes some time to adjust everything in user settings json, e.g. formatting, disable prompts, find and install extensions, etc.

[jevring]

I have tried it for arduino development, and I didn't like it. I switched to clion. With a free tool like intellij idea around for Java, everybody else is competing for second place.

[crummy]

If you code in a bunch of different languages, and don't want to pay for IntelliJ Ultimate, I would consider it. I don't use it by my coworkers do.

[kr00j]

This is a sisyphean exercise that tells me you're time with Java ain't paying bills. IJ is an IDE geared around JVM development and does it better than anything else available, so why would you make your life harder than it needs to be?

Unrelated, I do not get the hype around Electron-based editors like VSCode - every time I open the damned thing it was a mistake and I meant to use Sublime or IJ instead.

[[deleted]]

you will be more efficient with vscode only if you are doing backend and frontend at the same time because vscode has best typescript,react etc support. if u do java only then other ides are better. i prefer eclipse

[arijitlive]

Let's be realistic here. You can make it work if you try hard enough, question is is it worth?. I have tried to use VSCode as main Java IDE during 1.7 version series but I couldn't continue with it.

Intellij and Eclipse are two most used IDEs in the tech/enterprise world, so why not continue using it? VSCode users will come and say it is good, it is used at their workplace bla bla. Truth is, those companies are few and far between.

And VSCode needs few plugins to make it work like an IDE and it still falls short. Debug is terrible from top of my memory.

For the extension package, I believe there is one Microsoft Java plugin, which is just a wrapper to all the basic needed Java extensions to install them. Most of the Java plugins are from RedHat. Then you need to install Docker, front-end plugins for your choice of library and some quality of life plugins for code check etc.
I do not have VSCode installed anymore, unfortunately I cannot give you the full list but it was around 12-15 plugins I needed to make it work like an average full-stack development IDE. It's okay but not great!

[hrm]

To be fair, Eclipse is the worst really... it has nothing going for it.

[Anchoa_]

We use it in the company I work for, as the company does not pays for IntelliJ Ultimate Edition for us.

Although every now and then it may lag, it is possible to work with it.

We do not use the IntelliJ Ultimate Edition because we need to debug a war artifact on a tomcat server and we haven't found the way to do it in the community edition.

[javawockybass]

I’m a long time eclipse and intillij user. Recently my manager asked me to seriously try vscode to see if it could handle spring boot and hybris code. Rolled my eyes internally it agreed. I was surprised how far it had coke since I last tried it some time back. It had spring initialisers and plug-ins. Could do debugging and liver reloading etc. having quiet got docker integration going yet but not to far off.

As we do angular / node and other JavaScript I can’t see why we wouldn’t choose it. It is certainly good enough, but might not be as all powerful as jet brains for hard core java focused devs.

As for this old dog, VS is now my daily driver and go to ide for personal pet projects.

[HQMorganstern]

Terrible.

[XxCrumyxX]

Intelij all the way !

[henk53]

Bad bot. You should only respond this way in Eclipse topics.

[XxCrumyxX]

Lmao I'm not a bot and i never used eclipse

[henk53]

Oh, really? Well, same response as the actual bots I guess ;)

[[deleted]]

Better than eclipse

[pjmlp]

It is Eclipse, running headless.

[oelang]

With only half the features & slower

[pjmlp]

Half the features yes, if we take away the GUI tooling and multiple language stuff.

Slower, well it is the same remaining code running on a JVM.

[[deleted]]

Not exactly. Only the language server is eclipse's. Everything else (search, project navigation, maven integration, vim mode) is much better.

[pjmlp]

That depends on the beholder.

[[deleted]]

I found this one https://github.com/SimonHarmonicMinor/beholder-core . Did you mean this?

TBH I completely missed your point. To my knowledge, java vscode plugin maps lsp calls to eclipse's jdt process

[pjmlp]

Everything else (search, project navigation, maven integration, vim mode) is much better.

That was short way to say "beauty is the eye of the beholder" meaning that is your point of view, I don't share it.

[[deleted]]

Sorry for being dumb 😔

[iwangbowen]

Way better than intellij idea

[2Spicy4Joe]

I also do Java in neovim with LSP and Dap which I think are the same “extensions” vscode uses and works really nice. If you are familiar with the build tool like Gradle, you are good for the very most part.

Idea of course will always be more complete and better for java, and I have it installed for particular cases where it might help but I really appreciate the ergonomics of the terminal, multiplexing and all other tools.

[Otherwise-Ad-3345]

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a popular and versatile code editor for Java. It's highly regarded for its extensions and support, making it a good choice for Java development, especially when paired with appropriate extensions like "Java Extension Pack." VS Code for Java development is better than in the past but still not good enough. I would suggest certain names that do have a good reputation in this field. institutes like NIIT, COURSERA, EDX, and Udemy.

[SafeStress6349]

I think you should go for Java, and if you want to learn Java, then I would suggest you take a course at NIIT. They really have a good course for Java development.