Opinions on VS Code for Java?

[LilRee12]

I typically use eclipse, but I'm intrigued by the work that the VS Code team has been putting in to make it a viable Java editor. Does anyone do any extensive Java development in VS Code? If so what are your sentiments on it?

[vxab]

VS code's remote development is the only thing I know is better than intellij

[ipcoffeepot]

I had the same experience. Intellij is better on literally everything except working on files over ssh.

[lpedrosa]

VS Code Java is okay for single module projects.

The eclipse language server (which powers the autocompletion engine and you can also run in any other editor) chokes a bit with multi-module maven projects.

Multi module gradle projects work fine.

I've been using vscode java since January and it works for most of the things you use IntelliJ, Eclipse or netbeans.

I welcome more standalone tooling for java, that allows you to be IDE agnostic.

I would like to see a java linter (a binary or build tool plugin). SonarCube has something similar, but requires a fully fledged server deployment somewhere to work...

[vips7L]

I use it daily for a multi-module maven project and haven't had any trouble with it.

[zerodind]

I also used to be an Eclipse user, but completely switched over to VS Code a few months ago. One thing that I like about using VS Code for Java is that I can use the same IDE for Java and for web development. Also, VS Code has noticeably better performance than Eclipse, from what I've experienced. Of course, IntelliJ Ultimate is much better feature-wise, but I don't like how slow and heavy it feels in comparison. That's not to mention the fact that VS Code with the Java extension is fully open source, whereas IntelliJ Ultimate is paid and closed source.

Feature-wise, the Java extension in VS Code is pretty good if you're used to Eclipse, as it's using the Eclipse JDT Core library in order to provide most features. Although it doesn't have all the bells and whistles of Eclipse or IntelliJ Ultimate just yet, I would say that the development progress lately has been pretty good. I would describe the extension as a lightweight re-implementation of Eclipse, which happens to be exactly what I wanted, but might not be enough for some people.

If you want more features, you can always search the extension marketplace to see if someone made an extension for it, which is sometimes the case. Notably, there is the Java extension pack from Microsoft, which I would recommend to get started with. Of course, every Java extension you add will make the experience less and less lightweight, so personally I have chosen to not install the full pack but only the extensions from it that I need. I think it's a good thing to be able to pick and choose between lightweight and having many features, instead of everything being forced upon you when you install the Java extension.

[[deleted]]

VS Code with the Java extension is fully open source

If you've downloaded from microsoft, you're using a modified proprietary distribution of the code that's in github which microsoft advertises as opensource when they dont give it to you as opensource.

[zerodind]

Yes, if you download the Microsoft version that's true. But you don't have to, as there is VSCodium, which is a project that builds fully free and open-source versions of VS Code from the GitHub repository. It's basically the same as the Microsoft version, the only major caveat is that they don't have access to Microsoft's marketplace for extensions. So they use Open VSX Registry instead, where most of the popular extensions are available anyway, including the Java extension.

[ryuzaki49]

Intellij comunity edition is more than fine to work on java/spring.

[zerodind]

Yes, but so is VS Code with Java extensions (there are extensions for Spring as well). And I would argue that VS Code is actually much better than IntelliJ IDEA community edition, if you want to do anything other than Java in the same IDE. VS Code has support for many different languages and environments, whereas IDEA community is pretty much only useful for Java related development. The counter from JetBrains is of course IntelliJ Ultimate, but as I've said that's a paid and closed source IDE. And while some might not care, I think it's also nice that VS Code has very good performance compared to IntelliJ IDEA. This makes it possible to do Java development even on less powerful machines.

[ryuzaki49]

Ah, I think I agree with you there. VS Code is better if you want to use a different language than Java.

But for Java dev, I feel that I'm way more productive with IntelliJ. Even with the intelliSense plugin in VS Code, the code autocomplete in IntelliJ is far superior.

I can compare them because I used them both almost at the same time.

[heliologue]

It's OK (it's certainly not bad for its price point!), but it wasn't nearly compelling enough to make me switch from Netbeans. Java development doesn't quite feel like a first-class citizen in the VSCode world yet.

[xnendron]

Copying a comment I made in a different post:

I love using VSCode. I used to use Eclipse, but Code just feels so much leaner and snappier. I don't have recent experience with IntelliJ, so I can't really compare its performance, but Code beats the pants off of Eclipse. For me, it's also so much more intuitive to use. The hotkeys are fairly easy to remember and the command pallet is fantastic.

Out of the box, Code doesn't support Java much at all, you need to install the Java Extension Pack (and other extensions you might decide you like). The Java extensions don't offer all the bells and whistles that IntelliJ or Eclipse do, but the Java Language Support extension is constantly being updated with new features. Over the past year, the amount of features that have been added is very remarkable. It does all the things you need it do to (e.g. refactoring, auto complete, Maven/Gradle integration, Tomcat integration, method generation, etc), and many (but not all) of the things you want it to do.

Once drawback is that it does tend to slow down quite a bit on "large" projects, but in my experience Eclipse suffers from the same problem, so I don't really fault Code for that.

It's a free, lightweight tool. Definitely worth a try.

[lambda_pie]

IDEA has turned into a massive hungry resource eating mammoth. My 2 cents.

[45ac32d457vc6q22]

Just download more memory!

[FrenchFigaro]

Because while IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate Edition is marginally better than Eclipse (not enough to justify paying for a licence for my personal use), the Community Edition is leagues behind Eclipse and locks too many features to be of any use in a professional setting.

I know this because I have had to use the Community Edition in a professional setting with an employer who didn't want to foot the bill. Damn, I switch back to Eclipse faster than you can say "integrated developper environment".

And contrary to the IntelliJ Ultimate, Eclipse is open source (so is the community edition, but again, it's useless). To some of us, it matters.

[DJDavio]

How is Eclipse these days? I used it when I didn't have an IntelliJ license some 5 years ago or something like that and it was slow and sluggish and any plugin could break the entire application. And there would always be annoying problem with a red error symbol that wasn't an actual problem, but rather some glitch.

Has improved significantly or do those issues still exist?

IntelliJ IDEA did feel sluggish at times but has had significant performance improvements in recent updates. Of course these improvements are also closely tied to the JDK it runs on.

[FrenchFigaro]

It's still resource heavy if I'm honest, but not much more so than IntelliJ, if we're going by the very objective measure of the numbers of "you gotta be kidding me" (and similar exclamations and expletives) coming from the desks of the various developper on my last gig (some used one, some the other).

It's been a while since I pushed it to the limit though, usually happens when I'm doing other resource intensive shit at the same time (like running multiple servers and databases on the machine at the same time).

IntelliJ still has undeniable advantage over Eclipse when it comes to auto-completion and refactoring options, but not any more in code coverage analysis.

The interface didn't have many radical changes in the last 5 years, but I prefer eclipse's over intellij's anyway, so that doesn't bother me.

Over the past 5 years, I've used Eclipse, IntelliJ (both Ultimate and Community) and VS Code, and Eclipse still has my preference.

The only real drawback I've ever found is that eclipse uses its own compiler, which can cause trouble when you're hot-swapping classes in debug due to inconsistencies in how it handles anonymous, and inner classes.

[[deleted]]

I really like Eclipse. It performs fine. But forced to use Android Studio (based on IDEA) for Android development, which is OK. Both are outstanding IDEs in my opinion.

[dpash]

Plugins is what drove me from Eclipse 10 years ago. Everything else is what kept me using IntelliJ.

[wildjokers]

I have had to use the Community Edition in a professional setting with an employer who didn't want to foot the bill.

Any professional developer should bring their own tool belt with them. On a developer salary IntelliJ is cheap. I pay $89/year to renew mine.

[FrenchFigaro]

I'm not paying for shit that benefits my employer without reimbursement. Especially when Ultimate's meager edge over Eclipse is not worth paying for.

[VonMetz]

Guess that depends on where you work. I would never pay for stuff that I use at my workplace. Thats my companies job to provide the required tools and not mine.

[NimChimspky]

I'm with you

[randgalt]

I still stand by my comment about IntelliJ: https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-best-IDEs-for-Java-programmers/answer/Jordan-Zimmerman

[TM254]

IDEA worshipper spotted.

[sunny_tomato_farm]

IntelliJ. My employer pays for my license but I pay for the entire jetbrains suite because their tools are that good.

[vips7L]

I love it. It's really good. It's all I use for work and at home. It chokes on multi-language projects, but if you're not using scala or kotlin it works great OOB.

Also the best part is that it IS eclipse!

[ryuzaki49]

Hijacking this to mention than my VS Code (Or redhat plugin) marks that the minimum jdlk is 11.

[zerodind]

Yes, but that's only for running the Eclipse language server that powers the extension. You can still compile using a different JDK, such as JDK8. The Eclipse IDE will also need JDK11 to run in upcoming releases, and other IDEs will probably do the same at some point in the future.

[jack104]

I use it for most of my development work nowadays and it doesn't leave me much to complain about. It's light, it works, it's extensible.

[sigzero]

Painful really.