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Comment by manyxcxi | Hacker News Reader

> I’m not monogamous with my code editors

I’ve always wondered why some people seem so married to a single editor. Based on the file type or context I might bounce between a number of them.

I used to use Sublime Text a lot, but that’s been completely replaced for me by VSCode.

I use IntelliJ IDEA predominantly for Java, Groovy, Python, Kotlin, PHP. I’m not a fan of its type hinting for JS or suggestions for HTML/SASS/CSS so I use VSCode for all my ‘web’ work.

I’ve also found VSCode to be faster/nicer than IDEA for random things like JSON, SQL, Dockerfiles, Vagrantfiles, Bash scripts.

IDEA generally supports these well enough, but is too noisy (constant bugging about connecting to a data source when opening a SQL file, etc.) or is just lacking a little something compared to VSCode.

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> I’ve always wondered why some people seem so married to a single editor.

Familiarity, such as keyboard shortcuts. Especially for VI(M) or Emacs users, using anything else is an absolute nightmare. If you haven't been spoiled by VIM, then there really isn't much difference between "all those other editors".

:wq

I use Emacs, VIM, VS Code, and Eclipse, but they all need to have a VIM mode enabled or I'm outta there! VS Code can actually use an embedded neovim instance in its VIM mode for EX commands, which is pretty neat.

using it for actual editing is on it's way as well.

I started using Emacs like twelve years ago. At this point I'm hopelessly lost to it. My fingers natively speak a language that other editors don't understand.

I use a customized version of the emacs plugin in VSCode and I'm able to use most of the familiar keyboard shortcuts.

> I’ve always wondered why some people seem so married to a single editor.

I'm thinking exactly opposite. I wonder why people change their IDE's/Editors so much between Eclipse/Visual Studio/IntelliJ or between notepad++/sublime-text/atom/VScode/coda/text-mate etc.

What's wrong with using vim or emacs and being happy rest of your career? It's funny so many of my colleagues kid me by saying "emacs is a great operating system but it lacks a good editor" without ever trying it while I'm using emacs without a problem for the last 6-7 years and people around me changing their editors every year to "popular editor of the year" for better features/performance.

> It's funny so many of my colleagues kid me by saying "emacs is a great operating system but it lacks a good editor" without ever trying it while I'm using emacs without a problem for the last 6-7 years and people around me changing their editors every year

I thought only the vim users used that refrain. vim users are also unlikely to switch to a different editor.

Vim users used to, but now that emacs has a decent text editor[0], they can't.

[0]: https://github.com/emacs-evil/evil

or even better - https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs

> What's wrong with using vim or emacs and being happy rest of your career?

I agree with your basic notion -- it takes quite some time to be really fluent with serious IDEs and editors, so changing is inefficient.

But just one editor/IDE doesn't work for everyone. If you favour a GUI-only editor like Sublime Text, for example, then you probably need to also know a console-based one. Or if like me you prefer a heavy IDE for most project work, you probably need to be fluent with a lightweight editor.

For me IntelliJ IDEA + emacs covers all the bases. I'll look briefly at new tools to keep familiar with the landscape, but I'd rather invest the time it would take to learn them into something which will improve my skills in something more useful to the craft than just more tools that do essentially the same things.

I used EditPlus for over 8 years until SublimeText appeared, and have been using it for the last five years.

I think your point applies to current users of Atom/VSCode, but for me Sublime has stood the test of time, again and again.

I’m not married to an editor so much as my bindings. I’d really hate to use an editor/ide that doesn’t have a decent implementation of at least some vim bindings, though I have to sometimes.

Ultimately I think it’s familiarity and a subtle fear that learning any new system will be a time sink.

> I’m not married to an editor so much as my bindings.

Agreed, and it's extremely annoying that VS Code has different default bindings on different platforms. I switch between Windows and Linux a lot and there's no simple way to e.g. say "use the default Windows bindings on Linux" or vice-versa.

I have to manually create my own keybindings and then copy them to every machine and then bother with keeping them in sync.

I'm using the IntelliJ bindings plugin together with the VIM bindings and get almost constantly the same bindings on all platforms that way...

For me ”marrying to an editor” is mostly about muscle memory. Onve you know all tje shortcuts, you are much more productive

> all the shortcuts

You are clearly not an Emacs user.

I was, for a few years. There are numerous shortcuts you end up using.

I'm not sure. I heavily switch between VIM and VSCode. I sometimes dive back into Emacs. It really depends on what I'm doing. But I like the refreshing feeling of using a different editor.

Re. a single editor: The constant, never-ending search for The Perfect Editor :)

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