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There's a couple big knocks against VS Code that don't get brought up enough The extension API is underdocumented. It's very difficult and time consuming to on

by qppo 6y ago

There's a couple big knocks against VS Code that don't get brought up enough The extension API is underdocumented. It's very difficult and time consuming to onboard yourself as an extension author with just the MS docs, since they don't cover the entire API and the vast majority of data structures are undocumented entirely. This is really annoying when functions take structures as arguments and have optional fields. Descriptive naming isn't descriptive if it describes how the argument is used by the callee, not what it means to the intent of the caller. VSC also inherits the core weaknesses of Electron. Not overall performance/memory so much as startup time (just a second ago I had to wait 3 minutes for VS Code to boot because I had too many workspaces open when my laptop's battery died on me). It can't open multiple windows in the same workspace (this is actually a fundamental flaw when debugging any kind of extension that needs to open its own workspace). It's possible to build an extension that uses compiled node modules, which is great for performance and usability, but it's officially unsupported because those modules are only compatible with the node version of a client's VSCode. But when all is said and done, VSC has shown that it's a great platform and easy to target as an extension author (or easier than others), LSP and DAP are huge milestones, and the architecture itself is just so friendly to extension that it's created a fantastic and lively ecosystem. But petty gripe: please kill the git username/password fields when I git clone a private repo over HTTPS in the console. I don't like being aggro towards what other devs find cool, but I think hijacking a CLI with an extension incredibly annoying. And I can't find a way to disable that specific "feature" without disabling all of the git integration, which I use all the time.

stu2b50 6y ago
>Not overall performance/memory so much as startup time Is this actually a problem, though? I typically use VSCode as a "focused" text editor; it's for working on a codebase for a long period of time (relatively speaking). A minute or do startup amortized over hours of work is not much of a bother really. For quick edits, vim is still my go to. Different tools for different needs.
- qppo 6y ago
  Yes, because of how VS Code has evolved we're not using it for quick edits but as a front end to entire systems. If I need to check something quick in a remote session that is configured through some extension in VS Code without simple terminal access and for one reason or another I haven't left it idling all day, those times will hurt my productivity.
joaomoreno 6y ago
Hi, VS Code dev here. We actually put a lot of effort into documenting API and extension development. This is why `API` is one of the main sections on our home page: https://code.visualstudio.com/api https://code.visualstudio.com/api. It's also why we have very restricted API guidelines: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Extension-API-guidelines https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Extension-API-guide... We'd love to hear more about the lack of documentation you're referring to. It's definitely a solvable problem. Could you create an issue so we address the problem? https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues Also on > But petty gripe: please kill the git username/password fields when I git clone a private repo over HTTPS in the console. I don't like being aggro towards what other devs find cool, but I think hijacking a CLI with an extension incredibly annoying. And I can't find a way to disable that specific "feature" without disabling all of the git integration, which I use all the time. This can be disabled with the `git.terminalAuthentication` setting.
- qppo 6y ago
  Thank you!

by qppo 6y ago

stu2b50 6y ago

>Not overall performance/memory so much as startup time Is this actually a problem, though? I typically use VSCode as a "focused" text editor; it's for working on a codebase for a long period of time (relatively speaking). A minute or do startup amortized over hours of work is not much of a bother really. For quick edits, vim is still my go to. Different tools for different needs.

qppo 6y ago
Yes, because of how VS Code has evolved we're not using it for quick edits but as a front end to entire systems. If I need to check something quick in a remote session that is configured through some extension in VS Code without simple terminal access and for one reason or another I haven't left it idling all day, those times will hurt my productivity.

joaomoreno 6y ago

Hi, VS Code dev here. We actually put a lot of effort into documenting API and extension development. This is why `API` is one of the main sections on our home page: https://code.visualstudio.com/api https://code.visualstudio.com/api. It's also why we have very restricted API guidelines: https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Extension-API-guidelines https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/wiki/Extension-API-guide... We'd love to hear more about the lack of documentation you're referring to. It's definitely a solvable problem. Could you create an issue so we address the problem? https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues Also on > But petty gripe: please kill the git username/password fields when I git clone a private repo over HTTPS in the console. I don't like being aggro towards what other devs find cool, but I think hijacking a CLI with an extension incredibly annoying. And I can't find a way to disable that specific "feature" without disabling all of the git integration, which I use all the time. This can be disabled with the `git.terminalAuthentication` setting.

qppo 6y ago
Thank you!