> it works phenomenally well.
I honestly can't deny or approve this message because I haven't yet used VSCode extensively. But I have used many "phenomenally good" tools in the past. Borland stuff in the 90s was fantastic, MS Visual Studio in 2010s had some awesome features, IntelliJ IDEs today are amazing.
Over the years I've developed a distaste for proprietary products. Not because of money, it's rarely an issue. I happily paid for using IntelliJ products, even though I don't use them anymore, I still believe that they were worth every penny.
Perhaps it's debatable but the price for using Photoshop maybe is fair. Photoshop is a truly exceptional tool in its own category. I don't know any other tool that comes close, proprietary or open-source. Photoshop is the most creative graphics tool. But that's my opinion of an occasional, amateur graphics designer.
The reason for my distaste for proprietary tools for professional programmers is the lack of freedom to tweak, the right to repair, whatever you call it. I firmly believe that programmers should be able to program their tools.
Again, maybe VSCode already is as darn hackable as many people claim it to be. From my limited experience, I got the feeling that today it lacks some extensibility capabilities I'd like to see. But it's evolving fast, the pace of its development is quite impressive. Maybe in a few years, it could truly be crowned as the most hackable devs tool that outshines even Emacs. For me, Emacs is like Photoshop for programmers. It's the most hackable software product that you can tweak to perform any kind of crazy shit. But again, that is my opinion and a lot of people maybe would disagree.
Maybe Google Docs gives you the satisfaction and feeling that it lets you do more, not for me.
- Google Docs doesn't have vim navigation and I need that in my editor. Trying to convince me otherwise is like punishing a child for being born left-handed.
- Google Docs cannot handle my pdf annotations, I can't read a book while simultaneously taking notes. I mean I can, by having them in separate apps, but I won't be able to jump to the page from my notes and vice-versa. I can do that in Org-mode.
- In Google Docs I can't have code snippets that perform computations. I can't send a http request, then get the results and feed them to some Python, process that data through Clojure and spit out a diagram in .png. I can do this in a single org-mode document.
- I can't keep my Google Docs Zettelkasten-style, similar to Roamresearch, Obsidian or Loqseq. I can do that in Org-mode.
- I can still use Google Docs and link them from my Org-mode documents, I can't do the opposite.
- While typing in Emacs, I can automatically correct my previously mistyped word by tapping the comma twice. I don't think anything like this even remotely possible in Google Docs.
- I can fetch a definition, list of synonyms, etymology, translation of any word with a single, simple keystroke while I'm writing text in Emacs. I don't know how to do that in Google Docs.
- I can select a region of text and feed it to ChatGPT, asking it to fix mistakes, rephrase, simplify, etc. In place. No copying, switching, pasting. I simply select, press a few keys - voila. It even shows me the diff of what's changed.
- I can't encrypt my documents with my GPG key in Google Docs. I can't store my docs in a git repo. Even though Docs provide a great way of restoring and tracking history, I don't think it's grepable. Org-mode and Emacs manage my documents in git with git-auto-commit-mode, without my supervision.
- I can't easily export my Google Docs to Anki. My anki cards are stored within my notes - they are not separate entities that I have to manage in a different app.
- Google Docs can't manage my dotfiles. All my config files for zsh, bash, command-line tools, package-managers, etc., all kept in a single Org-mode document. Literate programming allows me maintain my dotfiles in a very convenient fashion. Whenever I need to bootstrap a new machine, I only need to install Emacs, fetch my dotfile.org, and "tangle" the files - it creates all of them with their proper permissions, taking care of differences between systems - some parts are only relevant in Linux and not Mac.
- Google Docs doesn't understand specific type of tokens. For example, when I type RFC-1035, I can immediately browse it in the opposite window. Emacs automatically knows that it's a document 'Domain names - implementation and specification'. In Google Docs, I have to store a direct link. Similarly, if I have a piece of text that looks like mikjagger/sweetthing#144 - Emacs automatically knows that it's a PR/Issue for some repo on GitHub. I can browse it without even opening the browser. You'd think that doesn't happen a lot, I do that almost every day when talking to my colleagues.
Well, someone who knows Google Docs really well, maybe they'd say something like: "for 1, 2 and 3 there's an extension you can use, other things are just useless shit, nobody cares about it", and they'd be missing my point.
The proprietary tools may be truly great for most people who might be content with their tools. But most people don't know what makes me happy. Feeling in control does it for me. When tiny things like being able to call any external tool and make Emacs do the bidding for me, is extremely liberating, empowering, and delightful. I never have to feel like "ah, everything I wanted is here, and if not, then I have to want less".
> Google docs do way more
It's an illusion you want to believe. I believe a different one - that whatever I want, I can make Emacs do for me.