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VS Code is so bloated af Waiting for this to be stable! Would love to contribute! Any next features doc, so I can pick a topic and submit some PRs. Awesome work

by debdut 5y ago

VS Code is so bloated af Waiting for this to be stable! Would love to contribute! Any next features doc, so I can pick a topic and submit some PRs. Awesome work :)

hdjrudni 5y ago
Ya...it's going downhill :-( I liked it as a lightweight editor. Now it's just another IDE. But instead I have to sift through thousands of half-baked 3rd party plugins to get the functions I need. Editors/IDEs should do one thing or the either well.
- Philip-J-Fry 5y ago
  >But instead I have to sift through thousands of half-baked 3rd party plugins to get the functions I need That's the entire point? The functions don't exist because it's supposed to be lightweight. If you're finding that you need 20+ plugins to add features then I've got news for you, you're looking for an IDE that has all these built in by default.
  - fileeditview 5y ago
    Not OP but.. I have certainly around 20 plugins in my Vim and it runs faster than Usain Bolt. I agree with your first point but the IDE argument is wrong. I could use 100 plugins and it still would not be an IDE nor would I want one.
  - coldtea 5y ago
    >* If you're finding that you need 20+ plugins to add features then I've got news for you, you're looking for an IDE that has all these built in by default.* I also have news for you, VS Code's whole selling point was "built-your-own-IDE" and big plugin ecosystem, not "here's yet another lightweight editor".
throw_m239339 5y ago
VS Code isn't bloated if you never install any extension. You can't hold Microsoft responsible for third party bloat.
- Ygg2 5y ago
  But not using a single plugin is near impossible.
- Hendrikto 5y ago
  Well… it‘s built on Electron. If your editor comes with its own browser, that‘s bloat.
- IshKebab 5y ago
  Well, sort of. The problem is it's difficult to implement a lot of extension functionality in efficient ways, and sometimes they make it too easy to do it in really really inefficient ways. Examples: * LSP uses JSON. Even worse, VSCode uses UTF-16 internally (because Javascript does, more or less). But JSON uses UTF-8. So for correct operation VSCode converts the UTF-16 to UTF-8, and then your language server has to convert it back to UTF-16 to figure out the row/col positions (which are in UTF-16 units). * LSP has an "easy mode" where the entire document is sent to the language server on every keypress! * Some functions like `provideDocumentLinks()` operate on the entire document, so on every keypress (maybe it batches them I don't know), all linkifier extensions will run a load of regexes over the whole document. There's definitely scope for a text editor with an extension API that encourages speed.
- arghwhat 5y ago
  It is subjective and depends on your baseline. When you're used to fast editors ((neo)vim, sublime text back in the day, etc.), then VS Code is sluggish and bloated out of the box, and the idea of adding extensions that could make it worse is nightmare fuel.
johnisgood 5y ago
VSCodium is fine, so is emacs and vim. I use them along with IntelliJ IDEA. This "code editor" looks pretty minimal in comparison to the ones I mentioned... at least as far as the screenshot goes.
sharikous 5y ago
The bloating cycle should merit its own xkcd comic I guess. VS Code was specifically successful because it was perceived as much less bloated then IDEs, yet much more user friendly than most editors. Now we hear complaints that it is bloated. What will be next?
- GhettoComputers 5y ago
  Emacs isn’t slow
- laurent123456 5y ago
  All "lightweight", "fast" shiny new things are so because they have plenty of missing features. But anyway is it a widespread opinion that VSCode is bloated? Because for me at least it feels fast, especially considering all its features.
  - vidarh 5y ago
    A challenge is that we tend to have roughly the same 80 percent point for things like editors, but all want different sets of features for the remaining 20. You then either end up with bloat or extensibility/plugins, or both.
  - agumonkey 5y ago
    VSCode is bloated [0]. I ran a fresh install on a 1st gen i5, it couldn't process keyboard input on an empty file above 4 char per sec. Levels of lag my brain couldn't remember (and I'm a hp48g lover.. not known for zero latency). [0] That was last year, so maybe it was a buggy release (doubt it) or maybe they made big improvements since (possible)
jokoon 5y ago
sublime text is the best editor currently, in my view. apart from code folding.
- perryizgr8 5y ago
  Only problem with sublime is the exorbitant price. It's just too much!
  - preommr 5y ago
    $100 for what one (three?) years? Seriously? Forget the exorbitant tech salaries, so many other industries charge way more for essential equipment. That's chaper than a single snap-on wrench out of the hundreds that an automative shop has to buy. It's two months of adobe bundle that most graphic designers subscribe to. I think the perspective here is important.
    - laumars 5y ago
      Not everyone on HN is on Silicon Valley wages. Or even work in international tech hubs like SV or London. For some in tech, $100 is a hell of a lot of money.
    - perryizgr8 5y ago
      $100 for a text editor seems quite expensive to me. I agree it is not much in comparison to many other professional tools.
- zerocount 5y ago
  Yep, I'm either on Sublime or Emacs.
- yz1ruhzh 5y ago
  It was my daily driver for programming, editing.. pretty much everything text related until their latest version. Autocomplete became extremely annoying and the editor feels less snappier. After years I ended up switching to VS Code, and I keep sublime text when I quickly want to edit a text file.
pjmlp 5y ago
Other than having to put up with Electron, nope it isn't bloated, in fact it is still missing lots of nice IDE like features.
- debdut 5y ago
  well the bottleneck is electron. The startup times have consistently increased since I first started using it, now it uses north of 1gig RAM for a decent size project, too much for a text editor :( Don't get started on the popups though! And I don't use any extension

by debdut 5y ago

VS Code is so bloated af Waiting for this to be stable! Would love to contribute! Any next features doc, so I can pick a topic and submit some PRs. Awesome work :)

hdjrudni 5y ago

Ya...it's going downhill :-( I liked it as a lightweight editor. Now it's just another IDE. But instead I have to sift through thousands of half-baked 3rd party plugins to get the functions I need. Editors/IDEs should do one thing or the either well.

Philip-J-Fry 5y ago
>But instead I have to sift through thousands of half-baked 3rd party plugins to get the functions I need That's the entire point? The functions don't exist because it's supposed to be lightweight. If you're finding that you need 20+ plugins to add features then I've got news for you, you're looking for an IDE that has all these built in by default.
- fileeditview 5y ago
  Not OP but.. I have certainly around 20 plugins in my Vim and it runs faster than Usain Bolt. I agree with your first point but the IDE argument is wrong. I could use 100 plugins and it still would not be an IDE nor would I want one.
- coldtea 5y ago
  >* If you're finding that you need 20+ plugins to add features then I've got news for you, you're looking for an IDE that has all these built in by default.* I also have news for you, VS Code's whole selling point was "built-your-own-IDE" and big plugin ecosystem, not "here's yet another lightweight editor".

throw_m239339 5y ago

VS Code isn't bloated if you never install any extension. You can't hold Microsoft responsible for third party bloat.

Ygg2 5y ago
But not using a single plugin is near impossible.
Hendrikto 5y ago
Well… it‘s built on Electron. If your editor comes with its own browser, that‘s bloat.
IshKebab 5y ago
Well, sort of. The problem is it's difficult to implement a lot of extension functionality in efficient ways, and sometimes they make it too easy to do it in really really inefficient ways. Examples: * LSP uses JSON. Even worse, VSCode uses UTF-16 internally (because Javascript does, more or less). But JSON uses UTF-8. So for correct operation VSCode converts the UTF-16 to UTF-8, and then your language server has to convert it back to UTF-16 to figure out the row/col positions (which are in UTF-16 units). * LSP has an "easy mode" where the entire document is sent to the language server on every keypress! * Some functions like `provideDocumentLinks()` operate on the entire document, so on every keypress (maybe it batches them I don't know), all linkifier extensions will run a load of regexes over the whole document. There's definitely scope for a text editor with an extension API that encourages speed.
arghwhat 5y ago
It is subjective and depends on your baseline. When you're used to fast editors ((neo)vim, sublime text back in the day, etc.), then VS Code is sluggish and bloated out of the box, and the idea of adding extensions that could make it worse is nightmare fuel.

johnisgood 5y ago

VSCodium is fine, so is emacs and vim. I use them along with IntelliJ IDEA. This "code editor" looks pretty minimal in comparison to the ones I mentioned... at least as far as the screenshot goes.

sharikous 5y ago

The bloating cycle should merit its own xkcd comic I guess. VS Code was specifically successful because it was perceived as much less bloated then IDEs, yet much more user friendly than most editors. Now we hear complaints that it is bloated. What will be next?

GhettoComputers 5y ago
Emacs isn’t slow
laurent123456 5y ago
All "lightweight", "fast" shiny new things are so because they have plenty of missing features. But anyway is it a widespread opinion that VSCode is bloated? Because for me at least it feels fast, especially considering all its features.
- vidarh 5y ago
  A challenge is that we tend to have roughly the same 80 percent point for things like editors, but all want different sets of features for the remaining 20. You then either end up with bloat or extensibility/plugins, or both.
- agumonkey 5y ago
  VSCode is bloated [0]. I ran a fresh install on a 1st gen i5, it couldn't process keyboard input on an empty file above 4 char per sec. Levels of lag my brain couldn't remember (and I'm a hp48g lover.. not known for zero latency). [0] That was last year, so maybe it was a buggy release (doubt it) or maybe they made big improvements since (possible)

jokoon 5y ago

sublime text is the best editor currently, in my view. apart from code folding.

perryizgr8 5y ago
Only problem with sublime is the exorbitant price. It's just too much!
- preommr 5y ago
  $100 for what one (three?) years? Seriously? Forget the exorbitant tech salaries, so many other industries charge way more for essential equipment. That's chaper than a single snap-on wrench out of the hundreds that an automative shop has to buy. It's two months of adobe bundle that most graphic designers subscribe to. I think the perspective here is important.
  - laumars 5y ago
    Not everyone on HN is on Silicon Valley wages. Or even work in international tech hubs like SV or London. For some in tech, $100 is a hell of a lot of money.
  - perryizgr8 5y ago
    $100 for a text editor seems quite expensive to me. I agree it is not much in comparison to many other professional tools.
zerocount 5y ago
Yep, I'm either on Sublime or Emacs.
yz1ruhzh 5y ago
It was my daily driver for programming, editing.. pretty much everything text related until their latest version. Autocomplete became extremely annoying and the editor feels less snappier. After years I ended up switching to VS Code, and I keep sublime text when I quickly want to edit a text file.

pjmlp 5y ago

Other than having to put up with Electron, nope it isn't bloated, in fact it is still missing lots of nice IDE like features.

debdut 5y ago
well the bottleneck is electron. The startup times have consistently increased since I first started using it, now it uses north of 1gig RAM for a decent size project, too much for a text editor :( Don't get started on the popups though! And I don't use any extension