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Comment by Alupis | Hacker News Reader

VSCode is hardly in the same market as the entire Jetbrains suite except maybe Webstorm...

VSCode, while used for other things, mainly is a web front-end IDE.

That feels very inaccurate, the C/C++ extension for VSCode has 50 million downloads for example. Just anecdotally, most of the developers I know use VSCode for non-webdev things as well. I think you're underestimating the popularity of VSCode in general.

Guess it depends on the business? I work at a Java shop and everyone uses IntelliJ. A few people use VSCode for UI stuff but most also just use IntelliJ.

I use vscode for Golang backend dev work. I even have a subscription to Idea, but it just never took to me. I put in the work to customize Idea to basically be like Goland, and I still just kind of prefer vscode. Also use vscode for more generic things like CI scripts, Ansible, etc.

Jetbrains' approach to IDE's tends to be language-specific. So, taking IDEA (for Java) and making it work for Golang is probably not as slick as it should be.

GoLand[1] is part of the Jetbrains suite, and should be used for Golang development.

[1] https://www.jetbrains.com/go/

I edited it into my original comment, but you can install a bunch of the same extensions that are used in Goland in Idea. I was under the impression that the difference is primarily in the default extensions.

Usually it is extensions - but also keymapping, default utilities, some layout, etc. Basically they structure each specific IDE for what people working in that language would want/need the most.

So, you're kind of going against the grain by trying to make IDEA a general do-all IDE.

This is different than say, Eclipse, where everything and the kitchen sink are under one IDE. This took me a bit of getting used to, but now I kind of like that separation without fear of breaking/worsening one of my "flows" for another lang.

Yeah well the C/C++ extension panicked and crashed when I tried to use it for debugging on macOS so that just about sums up what the extension quality was like.

I sincerely hope it has improved in the past few years since then.

I guess you’ll have to try it again. If it’s been a few years I’d definitely say to give it a shot… that’s a lot of time for things to improve

I would pick vscode over any jetbrains tool for absolutely any language. I do all of my Java, scala, and python in vscode. Use whatever tools you like (that’s why there are so many) but vscode is genuinely good for just about everything.

I can’t bring myself to fight with jetbrains insane configurations (what the hell is a facet?!?)… and some very questionable syntax highlighting.

> and some very questionable syntax highlighting.

Could you elaborate? I'm in the opposite camp and any time I try to use VSCode with Python, I really miss the Semantic Highlighting there, which helps with orientation in the code quite a lot.

VS Code has semantic highlighting too, and I'm pretty sure it works with Python these days (might need the right extension/colour scheme).

Certain bits of Python were red, but not because of an error… it was just the color scheme.

Good question: what is a facet? I’ve been using JetBrains products for 20 years now and literally have never come across that term anywhere in them.

It's one of the extra things you can add on to the base project structure e.g. a Spring facet for Spring framework projects, or an Android facet for Android apps. https://www.jetbrains.com/help/idea/facet-page.html

Vscode is a code editor, not an idea. Everything you write is just as true for vim.

But some people do prefer an actual IDE, as it can give a huge benefit.

I get all of my syntax highlighting, autocomplete, integrated terminal, test panels etc in vscode. Vim is great too with the right configuration and tweaking.

Have been using PyCharm. Few years ago switched to a thin and sleek MacBook Air for it being lighter to carry around.

And then it became difficult with PyCharm because MacBook Air started to struggle.

Reluctantly switched to VS code few years ago and I have not missed anything since then. Performance was great even then. So is it now.

Have used it for almost everything from Go to Typescript and everything in between.

I have had the same experience with PyCharm on Win. I miss PyCharm's approach to exploring nested data data structures visually but I don't miss having to wait 10 minutes every launch because it is "updating indexes."

My embedded team is falling one by one to vscode. Main problem is education/documentation. None of us know what or how to do all the great things or even the simple things in CLion. It also guzzles memory. Also name recog: everyone wants vscode on their resume. 3rd, setting up embedded targets is not clear. :(

People put vscode on their resumes?

Do people really put IDEs in their resume?

i find dev containers to be a hoot in vs code and it's a language agnostic feature

Dev containers[1] exist in Jetbrains suite too. In fact, they're a specification[2].

[1] https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/21962-dev-containers

[2] https://containers.dev/

The remote capabilities of jetbrains software is just not comparable at all. I tried again very recently and it was just super backwards. Not as bad as doing straight ssh but not even close to being as useful and ubiquitous as the full editor experience you get on vscode. I even see more and more products offering one click remote access with vscode.

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