I'm by no means allergic to IDEs but as I have recently switched from IntelliJ to VS Code, I might add my two cents.
My initial reason to give up on IntelliJ was frustration. I had to work with files over 500k lines for a few weeks and got frustrated with IntelliJ freezing and exploding a few minutes later. I probably could've just used another editor for just these files but I wasn't thinking clearly and decided to give VS Code a go.
My experience with VS Code has been overwhelmingly positive. It's fast, it looks good (can't say that about IntelliJ, sorry), and it's quite powerful. After installing a bunch of plugins and learning a few keyboard shorcuts, I feel nearly as productive as if I were using IntelliJ.
To be 100% fair, let's explain the "nearly" part of the previous sentence. Refactoring capabilities of VS Code are nowhere near the ones in IntelliJ. A file-scoped rename or method extraction work most of the time but that's about it. In this area, IntelliJ is still close to my heart. The reason it hasn't swayed me back so far is probably that my project involves a lot of research and experimentation lately, so I'm more in "need for speed" than "need for a code tank".
500k SLOC files require quite a bit of refactoring…
But the right tool to perform such refactoring can’t handle them 😅
I’m practicing continuous refactoring because I apply proper TDD. I’m refactoring every 2-5 minutes, so I can’t generally live without it.
If I needed to tackle 500k SLOC files, I’d use a separate tool as well. And I would also push for separating them into multiple ones whenever we touch them. It’s hard work, but worth it. And it guarantees the more often we touch them—the more refactored they’ll be.
I wouldn’t even try to open these in IDE. This is clearly a job for a robust text editor like Vim, Emacs, Atom, Sublime or Code.
That wouldn’t trigger a full switch for me personally, I’d just open another tool, do what I have to there, and switch back.
In fact, on my previous project, we always had IDE + TextWrangler open at the same time, because we had to work with some huge input/output files as well.
Looking back, I'd say that making a full switch was somewhat an overreaction. I inherited this nasty project with giant SQLs producing gigantic XMLs and on top of that the tool I'm working with is blowing up (despite the fact is supposedly supports large files by disabling certain features). I was sad, I made the switch and I'm pretty happy. Probably as soon as I need to spit out some production-grade Java/Kotlin I'll be back to rocking IntelliJ.
I'm by no means allergic to IDEs but as I have recently switched from IntelliJ to VS Code, I might add my two cents.
My initial reason to give up on IntelliJ was frustration. I had to work with files over 500k lines for a few weeks and got frustrated with IntelliJ freezing and exploding a few minutes later. I probably could've just used another editor for just these files but I wasn't thinking clearly and decided to give VS Code a go.
My experience with VS Code has been overwhelmingly positive. It's fast, it looks good (can't say that about IntelliJ, sorry), and it's quite powerful. After installing a bunch of plugins and learning a few keyboard shorcuts, I feel nearly as productive as if I were using IntelliJ.
To be 100% fair, let's explain the "nearly" part of the previous sentence. Refactoring capabilities of VS Code are nowhere near the ones in IntelliJ. A file-scoped rename or method extraction work most of the time but that's about it. In this area, IntelliJ is still close to my heart. The reason it hasn't swayed me back so far is probably that my project involves a lot of research and experimentation lately, so I'm more in "need for speed" than "need for a code tank".
I understand you.
500k SLOC files require quite a bit of refactoring…
But the right tool to perform such refactoring can’t handle them 😅
I’m practicing continuous refactoring because I apply proper TDD. I’m refactoring every 2-5 minutes, so I can’t generally live without it.
If I needed to tackle 500k SLOC files, I’d use a separate tool as well. And I would also push for separating them into multiple ones whenever we touch them. It’s hard work, but worth it. And it guarantees the more often we touch them—the more refactored they’ll be.
These ain't code files, it's a job's output to be processed by another system ;)
Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding…
I wouldn’t even try to open these in IDE. This is clearly a job for a robust text editor like Vim, Emacs, Atom, Sublime or Code.
That wouldn’t trigger a full switch for me personally, I’d just open another tool, do what I have to there, and switch back.
In fact, on my previous project, we always had IDE + TextWrangler open at the same time, because we had to work with some huge input/output files as well.
No probs.
Looking back, I'd say that making a full switch was somewhat an overreaction. I inherited this nasty project with giant SQLs producing gigantic XMLs and on top of that the tool I'm working with is blowing up (despite the fact is supposedly supports large files by disabling certain features). I was sad, I made the switch and I'm pretty happy. Probably as soon as I need to spit out some production-grade Java/Kotlin I'll be back to rocking IntelliJ.
Makes sense to me!