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What Alternatives to VS Code do you use?

Andrew Luchuk on January 29, 2024

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 ...
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Kaamkiya • Edited

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.

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Yusuf Malikul Mulki

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.

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Andrew Luchuk

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?

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Kaamkiya

I mostly just typed vim into 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 typing vim into 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.

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Andrew Luchuk

Good to know. Thanks for the tip!

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grant horwood

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/

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Andrew Luchuk

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!

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Mohammad Mahdi Bahrami

(...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?

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Andrew Luchuk

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.

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Mohammad Mahdi Bahrami • Edited

Heard of Helix? The post-modern editor? I haven't used it, just saw it...

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Andrew Luchuk

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.

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Andrew Luchuk

No, I've never heard of it until now. I'll have to give it a look!

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Karsten Biedermann

Maybe you should try out 'Sublime Text'? I love this editor. sublimetext.com

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Andrew Luchuk

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?

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Karsten Biedermann

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.

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Andrew Luchuk

That's awesome that it's that Sublime Text is that stable. Thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely give it a look!

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Riley Manda

I tried out zed,much more lightweight in comparison to VS Code.

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Andrew Luchuk

Yes, it certainly is. How well did you like its other features? Did you find its lack of plugins constraining?

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Mohammad Mahdi Bahrami

Well, now enjoy using Zed on linux! (It's available)

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Andrew Luchuk

I've actually downloaded it already! So far, I'm enjoying its extreme responsiveness.

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Mohammad Mahdi Bahrami

Compile Zed yourself! I did it on my Ubuntu and it worked! I also compiled it on my windows buy it didn't run

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Andrew Luchuk

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.

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the hengker

zed is available on linux today