4 ms·

In my opinion, this is how IDEs should be - make something better described as a text editor (like a fresh install of vim, sublime, or atom), and allow users to

In my opinion, this is how IDEs should be - make something better described as a text editor (like a fresh install of vim, sublime, or atom), and allow users to add more things to the light-weight(ish?) base. So many IDEs are overkill. Text editors with the right plugins can accomplish the same things but also be much more lightweight, and help you achieve a balance between "IDE" and "text editor"

TremendousJudge 9y ago
Except for the fact that Atom eats more memory than Visual Studio
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- Existenceblinks 9y ago
  While the statement is true, I have almost 2GB of RAM left before opening Atom. My OS says it's fine (although I know it writes more stuff to SSD) Fact is that it will use the maximum resource it requires, and maximum resources OS can provide.
giancarlostoro 9y ago
Spacemacs turns Emacs into an IDE of sorts. I use Spacemacs when I need to SSH to another box and edit files remotely, I much prefer remoting through Emacs. Also Visual Studio Code kind of is like this to some degree? You start with basics, and add on what you need, their D plugin is pretty decent, and their Rust one has gotten pretty popular by the looks of the last Rust survey. Also their .NET Core support is pretty much the best on VS Code compared to on other editors from what I've seen, their Sublime Text plugin seems abandoned.
coldtea 9y ago
>Text editors with the right plugins can accomplish the same things but also be much more lightweight Oh, the irony...
- geodel 9y ago
  In this world 1GB RAM for Slack or Atom is considered high perf systems as they allow to edit huge files containing 100s of lines or chat with as many as 10 people at same time.
- jamescostian 9y ago
  The reason I say those words is that when given the opportunity to choose what plugins you want, you don't install all the same things as an IDE comes with because you don't need all of it. Sure, an IDE with enough "off" switches would achieve the same effect, but that doesn't happen a whole lot I'm aware that text editors with plugins have more overhead than an IDE, but at least in my experience, I don't need enough plugins to make the plugins take as big of a toll as everything that comes with a text editor. I should have been more clear about this in my original comment
cletus 9y ago
Sorry but not only could I not disagree more but you're demonstrably incorrect. Anyone who says a text editor "can accomplish the same things [as an IDE]" just doesn't know how to use an IDE. The text editor vs IDE difference is the difference between using regexes and a lexer/parser to read, analyze and manipulate source code. The amount of effort I see people put into configuring their .vimrc or .emacs files to get a subset of what you get out of the box with a decent (ie Jetbrains) IDE that at the end of the day just dosn't work as well is... staggering. I mean text editors have their place and most notably vim/emacs work over an SSH connection. That's fine. But where possible give me IntelliJ or CLion every time.
- wz1000 9y ago
  This uses the language server protocol, so the work of "understanding" the code is delegated to another tool, which usually uses a compiler(or equivalent) to perform semantic analysis. So no regex hacks etc. if you use a sane language server.
- yodsanklai 9y ago
  You're comparing editors like vim with IDEs. I'd say "modern" text editors such as Atom, VSCode or Sublime are between these two extremes. They provide a lot of "higher-level" features while being lightweight and programming-language neutral.
- farresito 9y ago
  Does clion support makefiles?
- jamescostian 9y ago
  If you want to argue that IDEs come with more features than text editors "out of the box", I'll happily 100% agree. But I've spent many hours configuring Sublime, Jetbrains IDEs (CLion, WebStorm, PHPStorm, and PyCharm) in particular, and also maybe a grand total of an hour configuring Visual Studio. Yes, I install more plugins in Sublime to get the same functionality as an IDE. No, that's not what my original comment was about. If you honestly think there's something an IDE can do that can't be done in a text editor with plugins, then just consider this: an IDE at its core is a text editor, and all the rest is just "plugins"
vorpalhex 9y ago
Text editors and IDEs are different ends of the spectrum. IDEs present a feature rich and often opinionated dev environment while text editors are, well, editors for text like content.
- jussij 9y ago
  There are many text editors that can do much more than just edit text files.

TremendousJudge 9y ago

Except for the fact that Atom eats more memory than Visual Studio

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
Existenceblinks 9y ago
While the statement is true, I have almost 2GB of RAM left before opening Atom. My OS says it's fine (although I know it writes more stuff to SSD) Fact is that it will use the maximum resource it requires, and maximum resources OS can provide.

giancarlostoro 9y ago

Spacemacs turns Emacs into an IDE of sorts. I use Spacemacs when I need to SSH to another box and edit files remotely, I much prefer remoting through Emacs. Also Visual Studio Code kind of is like this to some degree? You start with basics, and add on what you need, their D plugin is pretty decent, and their Rust one has gotten pretty popular by the looks of the last Rust survey. Also their .NET Core support is pretty much the best on VS Code compared to on other editors from what I've seen, their Sublime Text plugin seems abandoned.

coldtea 9y ago

>Text editors with the right plugins can accomplish the same things but also be much more lightweight Oh, the irony...

geodel 9y ago
In this world 1GB RAM for Slack or Atom is considered high perf systems as they allow to edit huge files containing 100s of lines or chat with as many as 10 people at same time.
jamescostian 9y ago
The reason I say those words is that when given the opportunity to choose what plugins you want, you don't install all the same things as an IDE comes with because you don't need all of it. Sure, an IDE with enough "off" switches would achieve the same effect, but that doesn't happen a whole lot I'm aware that text editors with plugins have more overhead than an IDE, but at least in my experience, I don't need enough plugins to make the plugins take as big of a toll as everything that comes with a text editor. I should have been more clear about this in my original comment

cletus 9y ago

Sorry but not only could I not disagree more but you're demonstrably incorrect. Anyone who says a text editor "can accomplish the same things [as an IDE]" just doesn't know how to use an IDE. The text editor vs IDE difference is the difference between using regexes and a lexer/parser to read, analyze and manipulate source code. The amount of effort I see people put into configuring their .vimrc or .emacs files to get a subset of what you get out of the box with a decent (ie Jetbrains) IDE that at the end of the day just dosn't work as well is... staggering. I mean text editors have their place and most notably vim/emacs work over an SSH connection. That's fine. But where possible give me IntelliJ or CLion every time.

wz1000 9y ago
This uses the language server protocol, so the work of "understanding" the code is delegated to another tool, which usually uses a compiler(or equivalent) to perform semantic analysis. So no regex hacks etc. if you use a sane language server.
yodsanklai 9y ago
You're comparing editors like vim with IDEs. I'd say "modern" text editors such as Atom, VSCode or Sublime are between these two extremes. They provide a lot of "higher-level" features while being lightweight and programming-language neutral.
farresito 9y ago
Does clion support makefiles?
jamescostian 9y ago
If you want to argue that IDEs come with more features than text editors "out of the box", I'll happily 100% agree. But I've spent many hours configuring Sublime, Jetbrains IDEs (CLion, WebStorm, PHPStorm, and PyCharm) in particular, and also maybe a grand total of an hour configuring Visual Studio. Yes, I install more plugins in Sublime to get the same functionality as an IDE. No, that's not what my original comment was about. If you honestly think there's something an IDE can do that can't be done in a text editor with plugins, then just consider this: an IDE at its core is a text editor, and all the rest is just "plugins"

vorpalhex 9y ago

Text editors and IDEs are different ends of the spectrum. IDEs present a feature rich and often opinionated dev environment while text editors are, well, editors for text like content.

jussij 9y ago
There are many text editors that can do much more than just edit text files.