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Comment by choward | Hacker News Reader

If we could get an extension like this for every file type VS Code could basically become your OS (desktop environment) or file manager at the very least.

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It would be handy. I wonder if it is possible to create one that opens the file in your default OS way, and embeds that window inside a VSC tab. Can dream!

Why do you need a extension? Why can't vscode just launch the file type's editor app via standard OS integration?

I guess the main reason is so you can see your file explorer while working on a file. You could put your file manager side by side with whatever program you're using also I suppose.

A better OS with beautiful lisp language already exists called emacs (which happens to be an excellent text editor as well), try it. VSCode is built on a foundation of electron which is riding on chrome v8 engine. If one day webassembly becomes common and vscode can shed it’s weight and become close to 50-60% of what emacs is, then it might be possible to think of it as OS, right now it looks 2-3 decades behind emacs.

It’s only popular among programmers who wants an IDE not a programmable environment like emacs. Emacs attract scientists and researchers and people who write OS, compilers, DB, language specs, HPC systems and algorithms, design algorithms, performant OS utilities etc. VSCode attract web development crowd which mostly spend time on building web forms (making it dynamic using JavaScript with some framework may be react) on top of database schema or some document storage. Given this I doubt it will be anywhere as programmable as emacs.

I am also an Emacs user, but please don’t be so dismissive of other people’s work. This looks like a great extension.

Despite my qualms about memory use and latency, VS Code is a fully programmable editor just like Emacs, except using Javascript in place of Lisp. I don’t see much of a difference, except that JavaScript is much more popular (and thus the VS Code ecosystem develops faster) and Electron is a much more modern runtime, which enables easier integration of visual tools.

I think rather than criticizing Code all the time, we should look and learn. Clearly, Code is doing a lot of things right. And it’s not just the web dev crowd. I have seen a lost of Rust folks go to either Code or IntelliJ.

> Emacs attract scientists and researchers and people who write OS, compilers, DB, language specs, HPC systems and algorithms, design algorithms, performant OS utilities etc. VSCode attract web development crowd which mostly spend time on building web forms (making it dynamic using JavaScript with some framework may be react) on top of database schema or some document storage.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/cpp

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/java

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/csharp

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/go

https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=rust-lan...

Yeah, about that. What do you think those extensions do? Do you think they all cross-compile to Javascript and plug into the famed C-bindings for React? :-D

VS Code is used for a lot of things these days.

No need for elitism. I'm sure there are scientists and researchers perfectly happy with Notepad++ and I've worked with web developers who've used emacs.

I agree that VSCode is unlikely to reach the level of emacs in terms of being a fully programmable environment. But what it does offer is an easy and modern out-of-the-box experience.

VSCode is literally the only electron that doesn't bother me because it doesn't chew memory like Chrome, Slack, or every other electron app I've ever tried.

MS has done an amazing job optimizing VSCode.

Yes they have architected it so well that it performs amazingly well. The plugin architecture is well done too. The memory consumption goes up only when the plugins consume more memory as all of them run in separate processes. In the future, I'm thinking that they might start to replace parts of the app with WASM and make it even more performant. But I'm pretty sure it's not going to be the entire application.

Nevertheless, they have a somewhat easy path to migrate in the form of AssemblyScript which is a subset of Typescript that compiles to webassembly. The future of VScode is exciting!!

One of the performance details noted in the last update's release notes was that RegEx library specifically used by the syntax highlighting engine was a native dependency on desktop and a slightly slower WASM dependency on the web, and they improved the WASM bindings enough specifically for the syntax highlighter that now all platforms are using the custom WASM build.

Performance details in the release notes are really interesting to follow.

can you please give a link to the PR? I cant find it

https://code.visualstudio.com/updates/v1_45#_faster-syntax-h...

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/pull/95958

Thanks a tonne!!

Better OS is highly disputable. Emacs has point where can win against against VS Code, as also points where is lose. It all depends on your demand and usage.

> Given this I doubt it will be anywhere as programmable as emacs.

Customizing can be a curse. Seeking it purely for the sake of customizing is an harmful poison. VS Code has some areas for improvement, but it's good enough as it is now. It doesn't need to be as programmable as emacs.

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