DEV Community

Cover image for Is Your VS Code Extension Slow? Here's How to Speed it Up!

Is Your VS Code Extension Slow? Here's How to Speed it Up!

John Papa on March 12, 2019

- Extensions Rock - VS Code users (and there are a lot of us) just love our extensions. There are thousands of VS Code extension to choo...
Collapse
 
coreyja profile image
Corey Alexander

What was your before and after loading times for the Peacock extension? Curious to see how big the savings here are!

I was under the impression that one reason we (collectively) try to bundle JS assets is to not have to deal with downloading multiple large files over HTTP,but the extension files should be already downloaded locally,so I wonder what the benefit of using Webpack here is šŸ¤”

Collapse
 
john_papa profile image
John Papa

Good questions!

Webpack reduces the size to just the code we use and makes some other optimizations. So in this case, that is helping. I've asked the VS Code team to clarify whether the number of files has an impact or not.

Ph - and Peacock was anywhere from 8ms to 16ms to activate before, and 6ms to 14ms after. (I tried it 5 times each, with totally unscientific measuring)

Collapse
 
coreyja profile image
Corey Alexander

Ahh yes I was forgetting about tree shaking and the like!

I'm interested in if the number of files makes a significant difference as well! Thanks for the response!

Thread Thread
 
john_papa profile image
John Papa

I was told yes, the number of files will also affect load time.

BTW - I updated the post with some more stats that are pretty impressive. Thanks to the VS Code
team for sharing these and giving me permission to share with you all!

Collapse
 
dillpickle80 profile image
DillPickle80

Do you know if there is any resource available to evaluate the intersectionnal impact of different extensions when combined? Else, do you know of a conveniant and relatively quick way to verify on our own? There seems to be extensions working very fine alone, that once coupled with other extensions ends up stepping on each other's toes and making VSCode significantly slower.

Collapse
 
nedcode profile image
Ned Marafawi

This actually did help a little bit but I still need to disable some of the extensions so my VS Code can run smooth. Thank you for the article!