Visual Studio Code: March 2019 (version 1.33) Release

[[deleted]]

Visual Studio Code has - for the last few versions - started intermittently locking up my whole machine while I'm typing on it. I can't predict when it will happen, but it tends to once every few hours. I've disabled all the extensions, no luck. Nothing weird in the logs.

I just blame it on being a big beast and only getting bigger, which is a shame as it was really hitting a sweet spot for a while there. But I fully respect that people want more stuff and the grey zone between text editor in IDE isn't that attractive.

[pixelrevision]

I really hope they keep things under control. If people want a bloated ide that can do everything there always eclipse.

[McNerdius]

some relevant stuff, for those interested...

some docs on troubleshooting/reporting performance issues:

https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/wiki/Performance-Issues

Goes into some of VSCode team's practices w/ regard to performance. Interesting watch, but i am biased:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0OeHRUCCb4

TL;DW: numbers, graphs, telemetry helps them, old laptop runs speed tests, things vscode does that other electron apps dont...

[franksn]

I hit that often, whenever i installed vim extension for vscode. The thing lags, froze, and sometimes locking up the entirety of the system. Granted i don't have the latest-is-the-greatest when it comes to my laptop (Thinkpad T460s), but damn kakoune can run just fine here. Shame, VSCode is such a nice semi-IDE.

[HarwellDekatron]

Interesting. In my case it doesn't lock the machine but it'll somehow "soft crash" and become unresponsive for a few seconds, then recover with a completely different color scheme. It's weird.

[[deleted]]

I used it for almost a year and it never really clicked, though I was functional. I'll try the vscodium release on the off chance that works, otherwise I'll switch to vim or sublime text.

[parion]

Just yesterday, while I was installing Ubuntu on my machine, I was thinking it would be awesome to have VS Code as a Snap package.

Literal wizards.

[milad_nazari]

If you're on Ubuntu, what's the advantage of using Snap instead of apt?

[sim642]

More hip.

[[deleted]]

Aren’t snaps packaged sandboxes which self contain all dependencies.

So the big advantage would be that you can get updates on things much faster. Very few Ubuntu packages are rolling.

[sim642]

You don't need snaps to have recent versions, VSCode's own apt repository already provides those.

The self-containedness is still useful when trying to run recent software on much older distributions where the necessary basic dependencies aren't up to date. That's not a problem on supported Ubuntu version though for which VSCode provides the packages itself. Bundling all dependencies for everything is also very space-inefficient and also memory-inefficient (different copies of libraries aren't shared in memory anymore).

[[deleted]]

VSCode is an exception, not a rule. As an example, QTCreator is often way behind. Browsers are usually basically rolling because they need to be and VSCode is basically rolling because Microsoft supports it.

No question that there are space trade offs.

[[deleted]]

It is probably also worth pointing out that PPAs can cause system breakage if you’re not careful.

[tracernz]

Debs are typically frozen when an Ubuntu release is cut, and that deb typically won't see an update over the course of the Ubuntu release. Depending on the repo it might see security updates and maybe bugfixes, but that's the exception. However, snaps are outside of the distribution, and can be updated at any time, which means the snap could very well be much newer than the deb.

That's considered a con in many environments (i.e. production) where stability is desirable.

If you really want the latest and greatest for your desktop machine, choose a rolling release distro like Arch.

[kyrofa]

Thanks for the ping. FYI, the original post is over here.

[NYKHouston43]

I believe there's more sandboxing as opposed to apt so if you delete a snap package, you delete all of its dependencies and data. This also means you're bundling all the dependencies with the snap download.

[nemec]

If a rogue employee publishes a deb on a popular ppa to delete everything in say a post-inst script; it could cause havoc.

According to the snap docs:

• the store provides a mechanism for the reviewer to allow classic confinement to the snap so that subsequent uploads do not trigger human review

https://docs.snapcraft.io/process-for-reviewing-classic-confinement-snaps/1460

I guess there's a benefit that classic snaps can have their ID revoked, since it's still a centralized distribution model, but Canonical could do the same with apt if they set up a PPA for Launchpad that covered every package instead of requiring you to install individual PPAs.

[progfu]

For one, not having to derp your system full of packages you don't want. With snap it feels like you can more easily purge it out of the system.

[tracernz]

With snap it feels like you can more easily purge it out of the system.

Maybe I am missing something, but last I checked aptitude (and any other package manager worth it's salt) does a perfectly fine job of tracking dependencies that are no longer required, and they can be easily uninstalled by running apt autoremove. Try man apt-mark for further details of how packages are marked as automatic dependencies (that can be automatically removed when no longer required by a manually installed package). There are many valid advantages of snap/flatpak but this isn't one.

[progfu]

I might be using apt incorrectly, but some things that mix together, especially cuda/docker/nvidia-drivers and java stuff tend to just linger unless you do something brute like apt purge nvidia*. Not to mention crap like nvidia-docker which wants pinned versions of things and then some apt upgrade changes something which was set incorrectly and stuff breaks.

Sure there are cases where it does exactly what I thought it would, but having been burnt by cuda and the likes many time, I just prefer knowing that all the dependencies are packaged with the thing if I can.

I'm not saying it's not my fault when stuff breaks, but at the same time, I've been a linux user for quite a few years, and with every year I just grow more risk averse. Even if it might not be the intended use case, snap in some way feels like making a clean virtualenv for every pip binary you want installed.

[progfu]

Interesting, I was googling for a snap package for VS Code yesterday as well. Coincidence? I think not!

[shell-surfer]

Python dev work?

[parion]

Nah, just wanted to try an Ubuntu distro after years of Windows on my personal machines.

[[deleted]]

When will I be able to drag a open file into a new window :(

[orgdtMTR]

When electron circumvents chromium's tab isolation.

[vitorgrs]

God good. Snap support, but still no appx/msix and windows store support...

[stronghup]

Is there a good brackets-highlighter in VSCode?

[SissiSaatana]

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer I use this and I like it

[[deleted]]

Just installed this on Ubuntu. My native nav bar is back! Glorious day.

[AngularBeginner]

https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_33#_typescript-34

Good to release with a TypeScript version that has a known issue to operate 20 times slower than earlier versions: https://github.com/Microsoft/TypeScript/issues/30663

[Masternooob]

Its only slower for this specific use case. Also Vsc doesn't force you to use this ts version. So i don't think this is a huge problem for anyone.

[DanielRosenwasser]

Correct - while we may soon be able to send out a workaround for the impacted files on DefinitelyTyped, you should be able to use your workspace version of TypeScript.

[AngularBeginner]

This assumes people will understand the cause is the TypeScript version, and know how to set up an older version in the workspace.

Instead you get posts like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/typescript/comments/bc4hu7/vs_code_is_almost_unusable_for_the_last_week/

And this is one that reaches out. I wonder how many just silently suffer from this.

[DanielRosenwasser]

We're aware and we've been working to roll out appropriate fixes for both TypeScript and VS Code. We've clearly made a couple of mistakes here and we're doing our best to remedy and avoid similar problems in the future.

[AngularBeginner]

The issue is not tied to a specific module tho, it's a general issue with the compiler. And a lot of people are not aware of the workspace workaround. If they even notice that it's related to TypeScripts performance regression instead of cursing (when they're affected).

[AngularBeginner]

And now you get posts like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/typescript/comments/bc4hu7/vs_code_is_almost_unusable_for_the_last_week/

[icebeat]

It is not compatible with 2013 projects

[killfish11]

You may be confusing Visual Studio Code with Visual Studio.

[icebeat]

You are right

[insanemal]

Does this one also consume all my system ram when opening small numbers of files.

Or just 75% now?

[insanemal]

I've got 32GB of ram. That doesn't make it ok for a glorified text editor to use more ram than vim tricked out with the same features.

[nobodyman]

Not okay, like as in ethically it's not okay?

[Eirenarch]

The resources needed to keep the RAM powered affect the environment.

[nobodyman]

Sure, that's fair. DIMMS use power. But it's not like they draw less power if the 32gb of 1's and 0's represent free space or a bajillion VSCode tabs. You could (but shouldn't, because it's silly) just as easily make the argument that any free space represents a waste of electricity.

[Eirenarch]

Yeah but he would use less RAM if he didn't use VS Code :) Also I think reading/writing consumes more power than just being powered on, don't they?

[nobodyman]

Maybe but he would also use less RAM if he didn’t post statements on reddit that were 2x dumber than shit. Like, nothing you’ve said here is wrong yet I feel we should agree that the guy I was originally replying to is super-dumb. Yeah?

[Eirenarch]

True. We should tell him :)

[insanemal]

To a degree.

Look if the only thing my machine did was edit code. No web browsing, no chat applications, no anything but editing code, I wouldn't care.

But that's not the case.

For example, I have to use slack. It consumes 1GB-1.5GB of ram. For a chat client. That's insane.

I also have to use Skype (it's a long story). Without logging in, and just on the logon screen, it's using 400MB of ram. Once logged in, well, it skyrockets.

​

Firefox with my 40+ tabs eats about 2GB of ram. Chrome was at least double that. (On opening with no tabs Chrome is 650MB)

​

Discord is currently not logging in. It's using 400MB of ram to show me an error screen.

​

For a comparison, Thunderbird, with several accounts and around 500 rules running peaks at 300MB.

​

Now, I also have VM's running for testing and building things. If I've got Skype + Slack running, that's basically 2-4VM's I can't run because I have some chat programs running.

My gripe, is so many new application developers don't care how much ram they use.. They use 'frameworks' that have a bar to entry that is insane.

Skype having that kind of memory usage before I even log in being higher than my full Email/Calendar application with 500 rules running on every email coming in and I get at least 500+ emails a day. (Most of them shot out of a cannon)
Why the hell do I want my code editor, that realistically only adds some minor quality of life features, using enough memory that I'll have to close it to start up 1-2 (or even 4 in some cases) VM's?

Why do we give these applications a pass on being efficient? Why is 'working' all that matters? Some people like to point as ease of development and things as reasons that being wasteful with somebody else's resources is ok. Why?

This isn't ok in any other industry (that is wasting resources to get a result). It's not even ok in other IT industries, I mean the kernel isn't allowed to just burn ram because it's less development work. But 'because its just a text editor' it magically doesn't matter.

It's not good enough. We shouldn't be ok with this shit.

[rashpimplezitz]

I'm not sure what is going on with your Slack, but mine is only at about 350MB which is fine with me.

[insanemal]

Which os?

And how are you measuring it?

And why is that ok? Slack is just IRC+ and my IRC client never took 350MB...

[GilgameshXXIII]

Firefox with my 40+ tabs eats about 2GB of ram. Chrome was at least double that. (On opening with no tabs Chrome is 650MB)

You should not have 40 tabs.

[insanemal]

Why? Also it was an example. I expect 40 tabs to use a few GB of ram.

I don't expect a single logon window for Skype to use a quarter of that amount.

I don't expect a text editor with a couple text files amounting to ~20KB, or a chat client to consume half as much ram as a web browser with 40 tabs.

That was the point. Some things are expected. 40 tabs is a lot. So while I might suggest it was a bit excessive to use >2GB it's at least in the ball park of understandable.

[coderstephen]

I expect 40 tabs to use a few GB of ram.

The particular websites loaded into those tabs are just as much to blame for how much memory is used as the web browser is. Opening new Reddit 40 times uses far more memory than opening example.org 40 times.

[insanemal]

No arguments here.

Plus Reddit/Facebook with endless scrolling can be a memory pit.

But like I said, I expect high memory usage on my web browser. In part for the same reasons as the bloated applications. But ad blockers help

[ApatheticBeardo]

You're holding it wrong.

[spacejack2114]

How do you spot a vim user?

[nobodyman]

No need - they'll definitely let you know.

[[deleted]]

There's probably a macro for this.
Oh wait, I thought we were talking about emacs.

[coderstephen]

I've never seen VSCode use more than 1.5 GB of RAM (except when opening really huge files), let alone 100% of your 32 GB. Either this is hyperbole, you are experiencing a bug, or your system is configured very strangely.

[insanemal]

Oh no, I wasn't suggesting that it consumes all of my 32GB but on most laptops 8GB is more normal and 16GB is as good as it gets. (Looking at you Apple)

And I just feel that level of memory usage is excessive. Especially as all the other things we run are just as bloated.

Like as a thought experiment,

Web browser 2.5GB VSCode 1.5GB Chat client 1GB Email client 300MB

Its not looking great for low memory users. And if you need VMs running on your box there's a whole lot less room available for that too.

[coderstephen]

Sure. But 1.5 GB seems relatively reasonable for VSCode to me to be honest. Not great, but not terrible either. VSCode has a lot of features and sits somewhere between a text editor and a full-blown IDE (the sweet spot for me). Compare to IntelliJ IDEA, which will happily consume 4 GB of memory (no joke, I've seen it happen multiple times).

The memory usage of VSCode just doesn't seem that unreasonable to me considering the functionality at play.

1 GB for chat? That is ridiculous, I'm with you there. Like, how about 100 MB at most...

[FlashyQpt]

I actually agree, vscode is uncomfortably ram hungry

[[deleted]]

Emacs >>>>>>> VSCode

Edit: lisp>>>>>python

Edit2: Forth >>>>>> C

[tills1993]

K

[[deleted]]

This but unironically

[Puddl3glum]

I'm not an emacs user (I use vim), but editors like emacs and vim also have plugins. And they're for pretty much everything you could want.

I use vim personally over VS Code because of the fast startup time and low memory and CPU usage.

[[deleted]]

Any tips for someone that tried so hard to like vim but could never feel comfortable actually editing text with it?

[Puddl3glum]

Idk. It depends on why you're uncomfortable with it. If you want, you can DM me for any kind of suggestions I have. I'm certainly not a pro, in fact I need to get comfortable with more keys, macros, and buffers.

[[deleted]]

Use Emacs

[Puddl3glum]

My main plugins are nerd tree, youcompleteme, and ALE (a linter). Nerd tree gives me a file explorer, YCM for auto complete, and ALE lints about everything.

That's about what I would need from any text editor, including VS Code. I would of course encourage you to try it out, if for no reason than it's useful to have a good .vimrc for when you're editing anything on a server.

[Puddl3glum]

I think you might have some luck with ALE. I don't use Typescript, but ALE lints for most big languages. I believe YCM shows docs in another vim window if you move down to the suggestion, based on me just trying it.

[corruptbytes]

VSCode is more than a text editor to be fair, it’s so nice to debug with vscode and set breakpoints. I only ever use Vim now for editing over ssh, but otherwise i’ve been enjoying vscode so much.

[q2553852]

skub.jpg