Ask HN: Do any of you dislike using Visual Studio Code?

Just in case you mean the question literally, yes, some people on HN have said they dislike using it. I'm not one of them. I like it.

But you're probably asking for people who dislike it to tell you what it is about VS Code they dislike. I do like it, but in case they don't answer: When people have said they tried it but abandoned it, they usually say they like the snappier speed of the QT-based Sublime Text. Most of us, it seems, find the speed of VS Code good enough, but some people have said that they don't.

The next complaint isn't really dislike per se, but some people find that even though VS Code might work in general, their specific work is better done with more specialized tools, ex: xcode for iOS, Android Studio for Android, full Visual Studio for Windows apps, JetBrains IDEs for Java or Python, etc.

Those two are the reasons I've heard most from people who have rejected VS Code.

Yea not a fan. Font rendering has always been hideous in Electron apps. Even with a 4k monitors it doesn't render like Mac native apps do. Simple things you take for granted in Sublime like it opening, typing speed, ui scaling correctly. Plus things like no sidebar customization (literally every other part of the editor is customizable). Icons in the editor are hideous.

Then issues like these

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/67288 https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/67413

I question the people who use it and their attention to detail. If you zoom the editor all sort of issues start popping up. Stuff just shifting everywhere in the editor. So yea I don't like it and will be using Sublime for a long while, or at least until someone figures out how to do text input in Electron apps.

As someone (non-programmer, yet text-curious) who spent ~9months of this short life learning Emacs so I could use org-mode, I love using VS Code.

It’s non-esoteric, easy to pick up, easy to kick ass with, and easy to show others how to kick ass with it.

The terrible parts:

- I don’t trust it , from a privacy-first standpoint, as much as I trust Emacs

- There appears to be absolutely NO security around third party extensions (not good for newbs nor enterprise envs)

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55126683/how-is-vs-code-...

I like it but have some bugbears with it:

- I feel like once every couple weeks one or more of my extensions stop working properly, and I need to either restart vscode, or worse, I sometimes need to reinstall the extensions.

- it's the heaviest 'lightweight ide' I've ever used, if that makes sense.

- kind of part of the last issue, but I need to say it explicitly: Electron

Nearly everyone at my shop uses vscode, but I stick with spacemacs for a few reasons: - I know the shortcuts fairly well. If it ain’t broke, etc.

- Magit is a good enough reason to use emacs all by itself. The git integration in vscode can’t touch it.

- With vscode, if you want a given feature you have to search for extensions, vet them, pick one, etc. With spacemacs (most of the time) just search the docs, it’s probably already there and all you need to do is make a keybinding. At worst you add a line or two to your config file.

- Emacs was laughably slow on 80’s hardware. Electron apps are laughably slow on 2010’s hardware.

- The vi bindings available for vscode aren’t as deeply integrated as evil-mode is. If your muscle memory expects home-row navigation, it’s extra frustrating when even most of your editor doesn’t use it.

I am a Vim guy but find VSCode is the only option for TypeScript; none of the Vin plugins work quite as well. I'm happy with it. I much prefer my Vim setup, though, but for TS the seamlessness of VS Code is too good to give up. I enjoy the IDE part of VS Code; the editor, not so much.

Unfortunately, the Java support for any semi-serious multi component Java project is an absolute joke. It saddens me because I am basically forced to use VS Code for everything else and then IntelliJ for those projects, which breaks my workflows and my muscle memory for keybindings.

With Vim/Spacemacs/Tmux, Automator workflows (I am a Mac user), Notion/Org/Git[hub/lab] for tracking my project work;

I don't know if there is any need to switch to anything else. Yes, for my Mac land work, I bit the bullet and use Xcode.

So to answer, I dislike even the idea of moving onto something else with an already productive setup. I keep reading these VSCode articles, but I haven't found anything ultra special that inclines me to try out, maybe I am missing something here. And then their is always the fear of telemetry!!!

What I don't like about VScode for C++: sometimes find source is very slow (much slower than doing a grep and opening the file yourself), and it opened the wrong file for one of my colleague, and find usage never work.

And I never managed to configure vim the way I wanted ('correct' usage of multiple tab when opening a function/file definition) That said I still prefer it over Eclipse or CLion..

I want to like it but I have some problems with it.

I’m trying to use it to replace Jupyter notebooks, but some things don’t work like I expect, the UI feels cluttered, and for some reason I’ve been having weird issues with the autocomplete when running code in kernels.

Right now I still prefer my Jupyter lab + pycharm setup. I may continue to try and learn better workflows with VScode because I think it has the potential to replace both for me and alleviate many pain points.

I'm used to using Vim with a bunch of plug-ins as my IDE. VSCode allows me to get an almost identical setup plus some extra features set up in a fraction of the time. This comes with too big tradeoffs though: customizability and speed. I've found VSCode can get laggy, particularly on older machines or with many plug-ins loaded. There are also all kinds of UI things I find myself unable to configure (status bars etc.).

I don't like VS Code git integration, WebStorms (JetBrains) diff/merge tool with syntax highlighting is superior.

Compared to vim, yes. It’s heavier, slower and depends too much on the mouse. I also have a vimrc I’ve maintained on github for the last 6 years, so configuring vim is as easy as running “git clone.” That said, I could start doing the same with Code since it uses settings.json for everything.

Compared to everything else, no.

I was a big sublime text user, but my work uses Vscode so I do too.

I hated it at first but am always amazed at the maturity of the whole extensions ecosystem. Could be the only thing from Microsoft I actually like!.... And all they did was fork Atom Editor...

I just wish it worked better on the toaster machine I have to work on.

After installing some extensions in VS code on windows, it do becomes slow. So I don't like that much. But vs code is better than others in the market.

I like VSCode, but I get slightly annoyed at how its auto-indentation doesn't auto-de-indent after a closing brace (the way emacs does).

I tried it and disliked it. Felt very heavy and complex compared to SublimeText.

Ha, I still love TextPad, but more for writing, not coding. Let the editor wars begin!

I think it's ok, but I like Sublime better and that's what I use.

I like because it's free. But autocomplete is very slow.

ITT: People saying they like VSCode