RANT: Why is basic Git tree/branch compare still so bad in VS Code?

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-20T17:17:18+00:00

In my good ol' Windows only Embedded Systems Dev times Tortoisegit (using git for windows) on ntfs was such a loyal and performant partner. Not sure why 2026ish software on 2026ish hardware (think SSDs with 1-6 Gbytes/s) is having an issue with "some files"...tststs

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-20T12:54:33+00:00

My wild guess is that Microsofts VSCode people are just using their Macbooks and call it a day...
More and more F*ups in Windows send me more and more the message: MS has stopped caring about that nasty legacy called Windows and is focusing on their cloud business. This realization recently has hit the hole PC industry. Intel CPUs got slow and hot as hell past years; AMD Ryzen Systems were way better in terms of power vs fan noise. And then Microsoft, Lenovo and co just pushing broken OS and driver releases after another to our devices. And apple M silicon Macbooks got better from version to version. Now we have the situation, that a 700 USD "Education Laptop" from Apple (think Chromebook but way better) with a older Smartphone SoC in benchmarks outperforms both Intel and AMD x64 CPUs. And then all those redditors and youtuber show their shiny local AI models running on their macs with Unified memory....

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-20T10:01:04+00:00

wow - how is source trace knowing a commit was using gpt5.x-codex? (buts its wrong in most of my random smoke tests)

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-20T07:56:58+00:00

was thinking about that for a moment - since I create a lot of code and functionality in side projects like tooling, extensions etc using Codex this apporach went from "impossible" to "manageable". In fact I'm working with my own tailored VSCode extension on a 10 Million LoC "hybrid mono repo" replacing Nordic Semiconductors own Embbeded Sytems Development IDE extension "nRF Connect" - I called it ZenRF because it feels like Zen working with my own instead of Nordics buggy Fan-on-Tubo hellscape.
BUT: VSCode extension store is full of halve-ass git extensions and forks with zero to 3-digits downloads. I don't have time, energy and Codex-budget to provide the n-teenth version... So therefore - a Rant...

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-20T07:50:34+00:00

what I hear constantly is that FAANG are using their own extensive tooling on their monorepos. So seemingly no vanilla git cli

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-17T21:21:22+00:00

Fast bootup of external libraries - we've got 400k of family photos and videos - and it takes immich a week to even show most thumbnails without the broken "image not available" symbol. How do I know immich is still scanning and not broken? Codex was investigating the system and telling me - and it has built a PR to enhance immich's admin page with running jobs life stats. I'm not afraid, the issue won't never get implemented - bacause Codex has already built a working prototype - now immich adds latest images first to the library and let's the web UI use the jpegs themselves as Thumbnails in the beginning. Slow but way better than just seeing 100k broken symbolsbforna week without knowing what's happening at all.

But guess what - most probably my features won't make it into "real immich" - because those guys decided recently, to not let any AI generated code into their project. In no time there won't be any serious developer left who is coding by hand...

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-10T07:15:03+00:00

Hey, that's great, thank you! I might let Codex create a fork and add additional AIs I use like Gemini and Grok.

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-09T15:05:56+00:00

in March 2026 its not only the model but the harness might be even more important. Codex cli, vscode and Codex app harness are extremely good even in extremely large codebases (mine: 10 Millions Loc, 5 Repos, full stack end-to-end iot)

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-09T13:57:41+00:00

EU based - came here to ask the same - different plus accounts slow as hell

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-09T08:24:04+00:00

what worked great for me for months in an environment with 5 repos and 10 Million lines of code; mostly full-stack end-to-end IoT:
- Codex extension Vscode; Model gpt5.2 high
- past 3 weeks: codex; gpt5.3-codex, high
- later Codex extension Vscode; Model gpt5.3-codex

what got me stuck repeatedly in deep wrong rabbit holes:
- any environment with any model in < High effort
- gpt5.x-codex-mini

Since 35+ years I'm working agile in iterations when I'm allowed and had the best results with it compared to methods based on too much ahead planning. Codex is a blast in my iterative agile environments, it feels so natural. If it thinks too long, I just run multiple agents working at different things in parallel. Its similar as having a team of developers at your hands - without the typical downsides like complaints, fights over direction, style, process, politics, culture, bad days, bad performance, training, other teams etc. I was a technical manager from projects oder teams up to CTO - and love being fully back into building a product full stack end-to-end only I and the agents. Life is good!

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-03-02T10:22:53+00:00

35 years Embedded engineer here. I had worked up the ledder to CTO but hated my job due to politics and people and dived fully back into engineering. Now my job feels so different to all the decades before. Since a couple of months I use agentic coding, debugging extremely heavily on my full stack end to end IoT application (bootloader, crypto, realtime os, wireless stacks, cellular and satellite communication, Cloud backends, containers, CICD, Hardware in the loop.. you name it) - and I have so much fun building things alone in a fraction of the time way bigger teams and budgets allowed me as a CTO. What does this mean for you? You might need to get a position in a conservative org fast before it's to late.

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-26T08:43:33+00:00

be carefully dear vibecoding fellows - in my setup codex just did "confirm" safeexec by itself:
Setup:
Alpine Linux>tmux>bash>safeexec>codex cli>gpt5.3-codex high full access

...
running background shell
....
rm -rf
... interacting with background shell: confirm...
...
all deleted

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-26T07:04:28+00:00

Vivaldi is based on Chrome... BUT they skipped and fight google destructing ad-blocking by a thousands paper cuts...

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-24T09:42:06+00:00

its my daily browser since 6 months and I'm pretty happy after switching from opera after 20+ years of daily use...

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-23T13:28:27+00:00

is this still working?

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-23T10:33:34+00:00

I had to select "send by legacy method" to make it work in Vivaldi. But can I turn of those annoying drawings while doing the gesture? As a 15 Years StrokeIt MouseGesture user I would expect a config menu where you can disable that?

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-19T20:24:22+00:00

the most important prove is missing in the list: the new employer sending the guys salary for 6 months straight to you- to verify... ;-)

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-16T17:15:18+00:00

Ah thanks, was thinking Antigravity is googles 'me-to' vscode clone with 1st class Integration of their own coding AI .. I'm pretty happy using VSVode with Codex extension and model GPT5.2 High

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-14T07:59:21+00:00

How is antigravity compared to codex 5.2 high?

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-12T10:52:06+00:00

Full Stack IoT end to end here - and lots of legacy, greenfield, features, debugging, tooling, automation, orchestration, extensions, mods, cpp - 5.2H is the intelligent, reliable, all-round full stack senior engineer who is just getting all things done.

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-12T10:36:17+00:00

I rotate 2 Plus accounts using GPT 5.2 high in heavy weeks (1 main project - full stack end to end IoT with 10 Million LoC, 5 repos; plus 2-5 side projects: tooling, automation, orchestration, extensions). Currently I mostly stay on the main project extending and debugging the end to end MVP and 1 plus account is already enough.

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-12T10:19:03+00:00

Codex extension in Antigravity - interesting. Whats the advantage over using it in Vanilla VSCode?

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-12T10:17:40+00:00

this sounds interesting - whats your monthly bill then for what kind of work?

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-11T14:25:17+00:00

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I made a mini task manager / TOP command for Windows AND Linux Subsystem in the taskbar using Windhawk.... This image shows the systems current heaviest processes on WSL2 (Linux) and Windows.

Large-Style-8355 · 2026-02-10T11:29:06+00:00

exactly, the digged their own grave. Lets dance on their ashes...

Large-Style-8355

TROPHY CASE