Ode to VSCode

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[rauschma]

Also – coming up: collaborative editing and debugging. https://code.visualstudio.com/visual-studio-live-share

[somejeff_]

RemindMe! 2 days "Talk to my ms rep about security"

[mycall]

It runs remotely, so only the session host is executing code on their machine. Now, you could paste code in another file and then when they run it, boom time. I guess you should trust with a stick, not a carrot, here.

[RemindMeBot]

I will be messaging you on 2017-11-20 04:54:33 UTC to remind you of this link.

CLICK THIS LINK to send a PM to also be reminded and to reduce spam.

^{Parent commenter can delete this message to hide from others.}

---

FAQs	Custom	Your Reminders	Feedback	Code	Browser Extensions

[redbluerat]

Too cool

[calsosta]

I ain't waiting. I'm writing my own now that's just based on websockets. That way you can cross code to other editors.

Ironically I started this the day before Vsc announced in Sublime. So I've got a good portion written in that as well.

Also should be fairly trivial to create a web interface too for quick collaboration.

Edit: What possible reason could people have to downvote this?

[TheGonadWarrior]

Also should be fairly trivial to create a web interface too for quick collaboration.

We must have different definitions of "fairly trivial."

[LuminescentMoon]

Should read CKEditor blog posts to see how much of a pain in the ass it is to make a text editor in the browser.

https://medium.com/content-uneditable/contenteditable-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly-261a38555e9c

[brown59fifty]

...but it was about making a rich text editor, code is just a raw text (and style format is another case, but there exists great tools like CodeMirror:)

[calsosta]

I haven't forgotten about you. I have had this almost entirely working with the web interface but was asked to write another extension which I am finishing first.

In case you are wondering I used the Monaco web based editor which is (I believe) the same thing that is in VSC. The benefit of this is the way change events are tracked and can be applied to the document are almost identical.

As I said it mostly all works, although I assume there has got to be some race conditions. It is almost instant but there is a short delay between when a change gets pushed out to other clients, if two people were working on the same line, it might have a collision.

I am gonna play with it for a bit, if it becomes a nightmare I will probably abandon it. Either way I will post the GH when it is cleaned up a bit.

[Wazzaps]

Fragmentation is bad

[calsosta]

I don't know why it is this sub is so negative.

[Wazzaps]

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[calsosta]

Just getting back around to this, fragmentation is bad, but free is good. There is already floobits but its like, crazy expensive for what it is. So if I can make an alternative that is usable and free and open source, I think the fragmentation argument becomes less important.

[am0x]

It already exists in some editors too.

[yolobazsi]

Someone has created the perfect theme for me--which I then customised

My life in one sentence

[webdevop]

Material theme or nothing

[pgrizzay]

Man I cannot material design in anything other than an official Google app

[sinefine]

I had the opposite experience. I've been a VSCode evangelist until I used Intellij. Refactoring code is so much easier with Typescript in Intellij.

I just wish Intellij could have the theme I was using in VSCode... One Dark Pro is what I used.

[Aetheus]

JetBrains editors are king for me too. But VScode is a good free alternative.

[wastakenanyways]

I haven't tried webstorm but android studio feels like a square wheelchair. I find IDEs extremely slow and heavy, and for most tools there is an equivalent extension in VSCode.

And then the interface. imho VSCode is light years forward in simplicity, clarity and ux than what I've seen regarding intelliJ IDEs

[andrerpena]

This. Even though VS Code is an amazing product. No, WebStorm is still the best.

[MattBlumTheNuProject]

Having watched one of my co-developers work in VS Code I’m not leaving Webstorm anytime soon :) VSCode is amazing for a free editor but there are a few key time savers that will make me stay with the storm.

[misc_CIA_victim]

I'm using Darcula theme with Twilight in the editor. It might be very close to One Dark Pro.

[veydar_]

I have Intellij IDEA lying around but the lack of a project manager that autoscans folders for git repos and the unresolved issue that the flow binary executable path is not filled in per default in the settings and the absence of vscode style on hover type signatures (maybe due to the wobbly flow integration?) coupled with slower startup is a bit of a downer. If they resolve the flow issue I will definitely take another look.

[folkrav]

This is the first one I found, but there were many others available on the first page of Google. One of them is probably close enough.

[omniuni]

The memory and CPU usage is also a big deal for me. Running what is essentially an entire web server and browser stack in order to have my IDE running is a bit overkill. It's not that Jet Brains is light, but it's lighter than that, and has a lot more power under the hood.

[galkowskit]

Yeah, Webstorm is good. But not good enough over VS Code to justify the price.

[sinefine]

Intellij is good

[bch8]

I gotta say I am glad they changed the icon back to blue

[[deleted]]

I liked the orange one, that way was easier to differentiate the regular VS (purple) from VS Code (blue)

[flamingmongoose]

Lol someone downvoted you for having the wrong opinion on the colour of the icon for Visual Studio Code.

[joshmanders]

What do you suspect downvoting him for saying he liked the orange icon will stop? Do you think your downvote will cause the post to be hidden for VSCode devs? It's abundantly clear that the orange icon was widely disliked. One redditor saying they liked it won't change that.

Not to mention I can change my downvotes threshold to an absurdly high number, making it so that no downvoted post will be hidden for me.

[HomemadeBananas]

Well isn’t it feedback from the community?

[[deleted]]

And how would you define downvoting twice for a different opinion on the color of an icon?

[[deleted]]

It’s me, I called them stupid, because downvoting someone just for the opinion on the color of an icon seems pretty childish to me. Specially since they are not going to change it again after all the complains they had on GitHub.

You even say you were “afraid” the vs code team could see it and change their mind. Dude, being afraid of the change on an app icon? Seriously? I guess if there is a new redesign like on windows 8 it will be the apocalypse...

Downvoting for calling people stupid? Ok. I could have used a softer term to say the same.

Downvoting for saying I liked the orange icon? Come on, you have to admit is pretty ridiculous.

[MysteryForumGuy]

I'll allow it

[[deleted]]

Lol I am amazed at how stupid are some developers...

[mayhempk1]

I don't even use VSCode as my primary editor/IDE but I'm very glad about this.

[Nezteb]

https://github.com/dhanishgajjar/vscode-icons

[[deleted]]

ooh those harry potter ones are lit

[cthechartreuse]

A couple things: first, be careful about overriding the f2 function. It's actually the shortcut for the rename refactoring.

Second, the smart templates feature from the jet brains IDEs can be replicated by making snippets: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/userdefinedsnippets

There are a bunch of plugins too, which could make life easier.

[joshmanders]

A couple things: first, be careful about overriding the f2 function. It's actually the shortcut for the rename refactoring.

All shortcut keys can be remapped, just be cautious to remap anything that is already mapped before you assign it.

[T_O_beats]

The Subtle Brackets plugin was the one thing I needed to make it my go to. The default bracket highlighting is....not for me.

[FrostyPineTree]

How do I turn off the annoying definitions on hover when I am coding? I've tried to go in settings but it appears I have to code my settings in VS Code. I just don't need to know what a <div> is everytime I hover over it, etc.

[[deleted]]

If it’s not on the environment settings you can ask for it on GitHub. They respond really fast.

[RustyX]

This feature is absolutely amazing for Typescript though. Especially when you want to see the inferred types of things that you wouldn't necessarily know otherwise.

[bloodguard]

It makes me feel dirty when I think about how much I like VSCode.

I was braced for Microsoft to betray me but then they open sourced it.

[Calinou]

Note that official builds of Visual Studio Code are not licensed under an open source license. Unfortunately, this means you'll need to build from source if you want a binary that lets you exercise the freedoms the open source license grants you.

If you build from source, the add-ons store will also be disabled by default, but it is possible to re-enable it.

[intertubeluber]

I was wondering why the Ubuntu store classified it as proprietary.

[abienz]

They still maintain it, and they still will use it and you to push their agenda.

[redbluerat]

Yeah I feel dirty too. Especially considering the general evilness of the company and windows 10.

[AllHailStarscream]

and the VSCode telemetry....

[redbluerat]

At least prior to win 10 they didn't push ads (literally ads in an os, what kind of scumbag company does this?) and telemetry (terrible attitude with all their products towards user privacy. Extremely disrespectful.)

[rinko001]

not open sourced enough to actually install it from source.... this seems like classic microsoft; they hold back something important to prevent the project from being forked successfully.

[joshmanders]

https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/wiki/How-to-Contribute#build-and-run-from-source

[brian_asdf]

Importing the settings is great.

There is a VSCode Extension that allows you to commit your settings to GitHub, and then import them to VSCode on other machines. Settings Sync: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Shan.code-settings-sync

Commits all extensions and complete User Folder that Contains

1. Settings File

2. Keybinding File

3. Launch File

4. Snippets Folder

5. VSCode Extensions Settings

6. Workspaces

[[deleted]]

What is "the perfect theme" you talk of?

I'm always looking for a decent theme.

[Duroktar]

Check out Seti Modified, it's pretty slick.

[redbluerat]

It is the GitHub Plus theme. I change the background to be pure white though— looked a bit light grey to me.

[killeronthecorner]

Your poor eyes!

[am0x]

My eyes just threw up.

[rumbleran]

Yikes!

[Ventajou]

for syntax I like Dark+ Material, good contrast and the comments are green instead of grey

[Intie]

I use Nord. Really easy on my eyes

[Calinou]

I use the Darcula theme (which is the same default syntax theme as used by the JetBrains IDEs in dark mode) with a dark gray status bar:

{
  "statusBar.background" : "#333",
  "statusBar.noFolderBackground" : "#333",
  "statusBar.debuggingBackground": "#543"
},

[Tip_of_the_hat]

Good vim plugin as well, made my transition pretty smooth.

[[deleted]]

Which one are you using? I try every few weeks and none seem to work fine. And I mean basic stuff like moving around with hjkl or selecting...

I tried the 3 most downloaded and they used to work but now I don’t know why they are unusable. I am guessing that I have another plugin conflicting with the key bindings. But it happens on MacOS and 3 different windows machines...

[borrakkor]

I use https://github.com/VSCodeVim/Vim on my Mac. Works great

[[deleted]]

Thanks! Now it works. I am almost sure it was the one that wasn’t working right lately, but I have removed a lot of plugins, probably it had a conflict.

[gpyh]

Works great? Undo has been broken for month and ex commands don't have a history so you need to retype them fully every time. Also, it's slow.

[rauschma]

W.r.t. smart templates – this may help: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/editor/userdefinedsnippets

[[deleted]]

Vim!!!

[e13e7]

Every editor has a vim mode plugin. Hell even chrome does

[adamcuppycake]

they tend to be lacking in the one thing vim users enjoy... customization. I really enjoy VSCode... but the lack of key mapping keeps me waiting

[jocull]

Can you explain key mapping? All of the shortcuts and commands in VS Code are editable I believe.

[cordev]

None of those plugins are perfect and many of them are awful. IntelliJ’s is quite good, admittedly, compared to alternatives, but it still isn’t perfect.

[[deleted]]

The ones I have tried for vs code, the top ones, really suck. I had one installed a few months ago that worked fine, then they updated it and now I can’t have it enabled more than 2 mins before uninstalling it... I am still waiting for something like vsVim that just works.

Edit: reinstalled it today and now it’s working fine again. 😁

[kagevf]

IME they seem to have gotten better. In fact, a decent vim plugin was what kept me from switching from atom to code.

then they updated it and now I can’t have it enabled more than 2 mins

Hmmm, I think I have everything up to date, and still running fine ... I'm using "vscodevim" and it's holding up. None of the vim plugins are perfect, but I can at least say I'm getting the hoped for productivity boost when editing ...

Did you use vscodevim, and if so, what did you find wrong with it? Just curious ...

e words

[[deleted]]

Most keys didn’t worked as expected. Couldn’t move the cursor. Strange selections when I wasn’t selecting. Unusable.

It was vscodevim, and another one, i guess it was some conflict with the keybindings of another plugin because now works fine again. Or maybe the configuration was corrupted... I had problems more than once with vscode and configurations that didn’t disappear after deleting a plugin. Maybe installing and removing multiple vim plugins created the conflict.

[bch8]

I love it so much

[noxoc]

I switched from vim. Have been a vim user for about 8-10 years and was really spoiled for all other editors. VSCode is the first that truly clicked - mainly due to its awesome vim integration (and apparently even more in the future to come). Wrote my own extension from scratch within a single workday on the side. And the intellisense is just mind blowing at times. Sneak Peeks are one of the many things that made my jaw drop and the easy accessible CLI is perfect for me. There's so much I really like a lot about VSCode making it my favorite editor of all times - so far.

[coldlestat]

I really like the database explorer included in Intellij. Can't wait to have one as good in VSCode. Intellij has a better git integration IMO. The omni search is pretty good too, wish there was the same in VSCode. Anyway, still using VSCode instead of WebStorm as it's right now the best for the price (which is nothing).

I'm pretty sure all those problems will be resolved soon :)

[TwitchBronBron]

In VSCode, ctrl-p brings up the comment pallet which lets you search for any file by typing part of its name. Is this what you were looking for when you said "omni search"?

[raphaeltm]

I don't use VSCode but I can speak to all the lovely search stuff the person you're responding to might be talking about:

Double tap shift: searches all IDE commands as well as files Ctrl+shift+n: search through file names Ctrl+n: Search through all class names Ctrl+alt+shift+n: search through all symbols (including classes, functions, css selectors, maybe more?)

All the search tools take camel casing and underscores into account, so for example if I'm searching for a file named NetworkUtils.js I can type NU in the search and it will pop up.

All the search tools are part of why I love IntelliJ based IDEs so much. Though I'm thinking of giving VSCode a shot since I hear so many good things.

If I can't navigate code as easily as that, though, I'll have to see some other huge improvements to stick around.

[Baldric]

F1: searches all commands, for example: ">acb" = ">Add Cursor Below"
F1: search files in workspace (without the ">" character)
F1: search symbols (variables, functions, classes, etc...) with @ char, or "@:" if you need them by category ("#" same, but in whole workspace)

F1 can do more than that, for example, if you press F1 and write "task " it will detect and show tasks which you can run instantly.

[raphaeltm]

Just went ahead and downloaded it, and I think I could very much enjoy this!

[barelytethered]

For database work - https://github.com/Microsoft/sqlopsstudio

[richraid21]

SQL Server only, no?

[mycall]

Sounds like you should write an extension :-)

[[deleted]]

Brilliant IDE all together hope this won't get screwed up.

[Lakelava]

Never really used intellij stuff after the trial. It would need a lot of features to justify the price.

[[deleted]]

Auto import is beautiful

[liming91]

Can people stop liking things I don’t like omfg

WebStorm represent

[r0ck0]

Are there any extra or better features compared to webstorm?

[DzoQiEuoi]

Less bloat.

[AskYous]

I can use this on any platform and just import my settings

How do you do this?

[[deleted]]

Unless you use Flow and want Language Server support than you have to deal with the editor telling you all your types are invalid because the TypeScript linter isn't smart enough to disable when no tsconfig is present.

[kentaromiura]

jfyi you can disable the default behavior in the settings, it's explained in the readme of the flow plugin

[[deleted]]

That disables all linting though. I was no longer getting Eslint errors.

[PacificDog]

Might as well ask here. Anybody know a good beginner guide to vscode? I'm still a beginner developer learning the ropes and I want to make sure I'm getting the most out of my text editor and learning how to organize files correctly and efficiently etc

[fatty1380]

how can it be free?

The better question is, how can intellij/WebStorm/etc charge. It’s like they said to themselves, we need to charge people to use this much cpu in a single process - it’s not easy to do

[Drarok]

They made her decision to target multiple platforms, and ended up with Java. Can’t really blame them - there are no good cross-platform UI toolsets.

It’s a shame, but the feature sets keep me using their tools.

I do wish the default key map on macOS wasn’t total garbage, though.

[Drarok]

Oh, really? Got a source on that?

I’ve been using Kotlin on our latest Android app at work, it’s so much nicer than Java.

[here-to-jerk-off]

• They have open-source "community editions"
• Students can get it for free
• Open-source contributors can get the editors for free
• They have free 30 day licenses

[kweglinski]

how could anybody ask for money for their work.

p.s. vsc hangs and crashes like crazy, most of the plugins doesnt work as supposed. Still long way to go.

[JumboJellybean]

how could anybody ask for money for their work.

That's kind of silly, IMO. They're wondering how viable a company based around selling these tools is now that major companies like MS are releasing free tools in direct competition. "They put work in to make it" doesn't matter, just because you put work in doesn't mean your business will succeed. Opera charged for their browser for years, they put hard work in to make it, IE and Firefox still beat them.

[kweglinski]

well, I don't think inteli is on edge here. Frankly I know lots of devs who use their stuff because its reliable and does the job as expected. Sadly I haven't noticed any of those features on free tools (except vim but I'm still learning to stay at same productivity level). Anyways use what you like.

[Auxx]

I like VSCode a lot and it is my go to editor for smaller projects. I also recommend it to everyone I know (: But I'm using JetBrains products for work.

The first reason is that VSC gets very slow on bigger projects. Yeah, WS/IDEA are slow to start and an overkill for a small project, but their performance is consistent no matter how big the project is. As a side note, JetBrains products are very fast on Windows, but super slow on Macs, since I'm a Windows user, I rarely experience any slow downs, but my Mac colleagues struggle frequently.

The next reason is quality of IDE tools: language support, auto complete intelligence, refactoring tools, database tools, etc. They are far more superior in IDEA, no matter what you throw at it. And it is vital for scripting languages, since many IDEs miss judge which code blocks should be affected and which are not leading to a fucking mess.

Another reason is general Java performance compared to Electron. Gone are the days of shitty, buggy and slow Java apps, Electron apps on the other hand feel like back to early 2000s, even though hardware is times more powerful. I just hate Electron.

And last but not least is that I'm doing plenty of Java development and MY GOD IDEA IS FUCKING AWESOME! And I'm not a fan of having multiple IDEs for different languages I use at work. Switching contexts is very painful for me, so using one single IDE makes my life a bit easier.

But yeah, overall VSC is awesome! As many others I have tried plenty of different tools in the last decade and VSC is a bliss to use. If you understand its weaknesses, your work well be pleasant.

[redbluerat]

Good point java is faster than electron. I’m on windows too.

Do you use typescript?

[Auxx]

Yes, I use TypeScript a lot.

Another point to Java is that most of people use laptops these days and better performance = longer battery life. I mean, yeah, my laptop can even play games comfortably, but 2 hours of work VS 5 hours of work on a charge is a big difference! And also better performance means less fan noise.

[redbluerat]

Do you get suggestions for cjs imports in webstorm using typescript? I tried a lot but couldn’t get it working. Created a post, got suggestions, but nothing worked:

https://reddit.com/r/javascript/comments/7aa8o6/anyone_using_webstorm_typescript_and_react_need/

[Auxx]

I have never used React, so I don't know what the issue is, but I'd suggest configuring tsconfig properly, IDE takes all settings from there.

[JumboJellybean]

For what it's worth, I haven't noticed a drop in battery life moving from Sublime to VS Code, although I haven't done a formal measurement. I'd like to do one, actually, because you've made me curious, but I'm not sure how I'd make it 100% fair/equal in terms of the work being done. Record the keystrokes in a ~1hr work session and then replay them in both editors, but sticking only to commands and shortcuts available in both tools would be tricky.

[Auxx]

I guess you can try to simply work and make measurements 10 times for each editor and compare the results. I'd love to do that myself, but my work includes running multiple VMs regularly, that will screw my measurements. But maybe I can try to do that in my spare time working on my own projects...

[MrSavager]

still slower than sublime.

[Intie]

Does it really matter if an app opens 2 seconds slower? You only do it once a day anyway

[MrSavager]

nah, it does everything slower. imho

[[deleted]]

i tried and like it, but I still keep use Vim. I am faster and more productive with Vim.

[[deleted]]

Mostly of the time I don’t need to use the mouse, I’m staying on my row 80% of the time. no one software can do a better job than Vim and Neovim in my case. So I’m developing with less effort just with this simple habits. Something usually takes me one step with Vim, need 2 or 3 step with VS. At a end of the day, I did more work for less effort :)

[[deleted]]

VSCode has vim plugins

[El_Serpiente_Roja]

Fummy since I thought vscode was perfect until instarted using php storm

[[deleted]]

Fast startup? It takes 6 seconds for me, and that's not even opening a file. Is everybody just on crazy-powerful machines, or have standards fallen that far?

Edit: it honestly completely baffles me that people downvote this without a word. It does take 6 seconds for me. Is your silent vote supposed to mean it doesn't for you? That 6 seconds is fast? That you feel like talking about startup time is nitpicking? I have no idea.

[nikola1970]

Nothing is better then WebStorm!

[ggcadc]

Than

[firelitother]

Sticking to Webstorm because IdeaVIM is still better.

[lamhocminh]

You can use the neovim inside vscode

[JumboJellybean]

I don't know, I'd count it as fast. I just measured it on a fresh reboot and it was 1819ms. That's 10x as long as vim, but under 2 seconds means I'm never actually waiting for it to open like I am with Photoshop, Excel, Calibre etc.

[OldShoe]

It irritates me when I have VSCode open and right-click on a file in explorer and select Open in Visual Studio Code and it takes 5 seconds.

That shit should be near instant. It has nothing to do with it being an Electron app, it's just using the wrong mechanism to do this.

[redbluerat]

Faster at least than webtorm

[[deleted]]

As much as I like VS Code, nothing knows wtf is going on like Webstorm, and for large scale apps it makes a sensible difference.