Hacker News Reader

Comment by travisgriggs | Hacker News Reader

I think it’s admirable that there’s a generic language server for Kotlin. Others, such as zed can benefit from this as well.

That said, I would much rather use AndroidStudio for Kotlin. Hands down. I use VSCode only when I can’t find something better. I recently switched my Elixir dev to Zed and am happy with that. Pretty much only thing I choose to use VSCode for these days is my ansible setups. Otherwise:

- Pycharm -> Python

- Xcode -> Swift

- Android Studio -> Kotlin

- Zed for Elixir/Phoenix

- Nova for embedded C code

- vim for scripts and quick edits of any of the above

VSCode for everything is like using a multitool to do woodworking in a garage. When you’re hiking or on a trip, a lightweight do it all tool has advantages. But I think it’s important to remember what IDE stands for.

View on HN

On a different perspective, I love that VS Code supports so many things. As full stack dev I have to work with Python/TypeScript/C# interchangeably, often in the same project. I can easily switch between projects with the same editor window, and I get to use the same keybinds.

That is nice, but not much different from jetbrains IDEs that can do this as well?

The issue with the VSCode ecosystem is that extensions can conflict, die, etc, and that is very annoying when setting up environments takes a long time, IMO.

Such as IntelliJ Ultimate that doesn’t have C++ integration, or CLion that can’t have Ruby integration or dozens of other combinations that happen in the field but not possible in IntelliJ.

Truly not that different from IntelliJ!

Neither does VSCode. They are extensions, which are analogous to plugins in the JetBrains ecosystem. Although, it seems like there used to be way more plugin authors for language support pre-vscode/atom/sublime-text.

You can use the JetBrains launcher to switch between projects in another JetBrains IDE though. Also, I think you can do single window mode in Ultimate to do a lot.

I can combine every possible language on earth that has LSP in one VSCode instance. You can’t do that in IntelliJ.

https://plugins.jetbrains.com/docs/intellij/language-server-...

> The integration with the Language Server Protocol is created as an extension to the commercial IntelliJ-based IDEs. Therefore, plugins using Language Server integration are not available in JetBrains products like IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition and Android Studio from Google.

b) I thought IntelliJ code analysis is so much more superior? If you’re using LSP, what’s the point of IntelliJ anyway? Sluggish ui?

It's so that you can do the "all languages in one IDE" thing you just described by using the LSP for languages IntelliJ Ultimate doesn't support. The experience will be more or less identical to VSCode for LSP languages, but for those supported by IntelliJ, it'll be better.

I've been using CLion since 2017. I recently switched to Helix, and one of the refreshing things about this has been that I'm now in an editor that can seamlessly handle every language or text file type. I think switching between editors was slowing me down and causing friction.

With Jetbrains, while there are plugins for other languages, it's hit and miss in my experience. Managing multiple IDE's was simply annoying, even things such as ensuring your settings are synced across everything was an issue. A different editor per language feels like a decision made for business needs and not user needs.

Which isn't to say that their IDE's are bad or anything, they are good. But they would be a lot better if they didn't take their product and split it up for each mainstream language.

I am currently circulating between Helix (for doing stuff myself) and Cursor (for doing stuff via agents).

Helix is awesome! I mostly love how fast it is. The world of JS editors is driving me crazy with lag.

Not to mention, VSCode's story on debugging/profiling is an order of magnitude worse and clunkier than JetBrains'

I’m interested in hearing more about Nova for embedded C, what makes it more suitable? Looking for an excuse to try it.

I on the other hand rather go with use the best tool for the job, this applies to IDEs as well as programming languages.

The vertical integration from an Apple product tailored for a specific experience, versus the jigsaw from Linux desktop distributions.

I've pretty much replaced my Sublime Text usage with Zed as a general purpose editor, which handles any edits that last longer than i can be bothered to edit stuff in Vim. I've used Vi(m) for decades, and know my way around, and while it's a decent editor, it is NOT and IDE, and modern features feels like they're tacked on.

Aren't Zed and Nova and vim meant to be general-purpose editors too?

How is Zed for refactoring Elixir stuff? I use VS code for it but I find the options for even just renaming variables quite poor.

I don't think any of the three LSP projects have good support for it. Usually I just do it from the terminal per file or directory.

Igniter is supposed to be able to but I haven't tried it: https://github.com/ash-project/igniter?tab=readme-ov-file#re...

why zed for elixir/phoenix?

i thought the mainly maintained editor plugin was the one on vs code

Reply on news.ycombinator.com