What, if any, alternatives to VS Code do you recommend? I think VS Code is a pretty great editor, but I have some objections to it which have been stacking up for some time now, and I'm looking for something that could potentially replace it.
If you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them! Here are the things I'm currently prioritizing:
- Fast (read "not an Electron app"), preferably relatively small memory/CPU footprint.
- Not owned by Microsoft
- Excellent out of the box language support for many mainstream languages, or a plugin ecosystem which has plugins to that add support for those languages
- Smart refactoring tools (sometimes find and replace isn't good enough)
- A strong plugin ecosystem. I like to make use of advanced debugging tools when they are available. Also, good plugins can go a long way toward quality of life features.
Alternative's I'm considering
I have tried or looked into a few alternatives, but I'm not sold on any of them yet.
- Lapce. Seems solid, but the plugins often seem like they are out of date and there's no way to tell whether they are except by trying them out. Also, even though Rust has good language support, I've found some of the other language support to be lacking.
- Emacs. I've been hearing about Emacs lately, so I'm considering looking into it in more depth, but I haven't yet. I guess have two main concerns with Emacs: 1) I'm not sure how many advanced features it offers because I'm not sure what it's plugin ecosystem is like, and 2) How good is Emacs' Windows support?
- Zed. I'm really excited about this option as it seems very promising, but I only use Windows and Linux 😥
- Vim/Neovim. These tools have been around for a long time and are pretty performant according to my understanding, but from my experience, they don't seem to have many features beyond syntax highlighting, and I'd prefer more advanced features.
I'd love to hear any suggestions from the community! Also, if you have any thoughts about the editors I've already tried, I'd love to hear those too!
Top comments (28)
I switched from VSCode to Vim a few months ago and I haven't thought about going back. VS Code took up tons of space, where vim isn't as large, is much faster, and you don't have to leave the CLI to use it. I know VS Code has a built-in terminal, but Vim has none of the VS Code nav bar on top, or anything on the side. It's built to code. There are plugins for things, like a stats bar at the bottom, but you install that yourself.
EDIT: One possible disadvantage is that its keyboard shortcuts take a fair amount of getting used to.
TL;DR: Vim forces you to control everything, and is quite minimalistic and uncluttered.
VIM is great, but navigating the debugger is a pain. I use go-delve for debugger for both vscode and vim.
Maybe I need to give it another try.
Yeah, the shortcuts have deterred me from learning how to use Vim in the past. What resources did you find helpful when you were learning the shortcuts?
I mostly just typed
viminto my terminal and really just read the basic docs again and again, until I knew exactly how to quit. Then I learned how to enter/exit insert mode (i/Esc). Then I started typingviminto my terminal again, and reading the docs. Also typed a lot of:help x. That was all I needed, until I started working on a.vimrc. That's why I learned to change color schemes, add line numbers, etc.Good to know. Thanks for the tip!
well, vim can do a lot more than syntax highlighting, but that functionality is managed by plugins. i like the plugin approach, personally, as it allows you to adjust how feature-heavy your editor is.
if you're looking for something that borders on being a full ide for vim, you can always give lunarvim a try:
lunarvim.org/
I never realized that vim had plugins! I'll definitely have to look more closely at it, then. Lunarvim looks like it might suit my needs very well since I am come from a background of using heavyweight IDEs.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Maybe you should try out 'Sublime Text'? I love this editor. sublimetext.com
Sublime text looks interesting. What is Sublime Text's most useful feature in your opinion? What feature or features make it so good in your opinion?
I really like the Package Manager (packagecontrol.io) and the robustness of sublime. In the nearly 10 years that I've been using the editor, I haven't experienced any crashes or similar issues. It's simply very reliable.
That's awesome that it's that Sublime Text is that stable. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely give it a look!
Nearly everything I've found useful about VSCode was directly inspired by Sublime, and Sublime had it first. Although I use VSC most of the time, I used to use Sublime exclusively and still keep it open for a lot of things VSC either can't do or doesn't do as well.
(...but from my experience, they don't seem to have many features beyond syntax highlighting, and I'd prefer more advanced features)
Heared about SpaceVim / NvChad / LunarVim?
I've tried LunarVim. I liked it for the most part, but I found its set up process to be confusing and hard to reproduce on Windows.
Heard of Helix? The post-modern editor? I haven't used it, just saw it...
I've been trying out Helix lately, and I have to say I like it a lot. There's a lot of room for improvement with it, but overall I find its motions intuitive and its speed appealing.
No, I've never heard of it until now. I'll have to give it a look!
I tried out zed,much more lightweight in comparison to VS Code.
Yes, it certainly is. How well did you like its other features? Did you find its lack of plugins constraining?
Well, now enjoy using Zed on linux! (It's available)
I've actually downloaded it already! So far, I'm enjoying its extreme responsiveness.
Compile Zed yourself! I did it on my Ubuntu and it worked! I also compiled it on my windows buy it didn't run
Maybe I need to try compiling it myself again. I tried it when they first open sourced it, but at the time, there was no Linux support at all, and even though it compiled, it didn't run.
I am using the Theia IDE, see also this introduction. It is very similar to VS Code, but completely open and has a vendor-neutral governance. For closed VS Code features such as Live Share, Dev Containers and CoPilot, it provides open alternatives, especially open and transparent AI support. It is compatible with VS Code extensions and therefore has support for almost anything. It is an Electron App, though.
zed is available on linux today
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