So I started my coding journey with Python about 2 years ago. I primarily used IDLE which was super bare bones but was perfect for my needs.
I’m now toying around with Javascript with eventual aspirations to learn C# and maybe something else (Golang maybe, C++ is intimidating). I completed codecademy.com’s course on Javascript, have been running through some algo training on codewars, been playing a little BitBurner, but now I want to actually try to develop my own stuff.
Looks like Visual Studio has an environment that supports Javascript, Python, and C# in one place. How is it? What are some of the positives and negatives of choosing to use Visual Studio moving forward?
I actually like to use different environments depending on what I’m doing. I tend to use SublimeText with custom build systems for embedded dev. I use VS when I need to use it, for stuff like Marlin firmware, it’s much better than it was when I started. I find that I really like PyCharm for python work. It makes a lot of things just really nice and easy for debugging and the like.
All that said, if you want one environment to rule them all, you could do worse than something like VS or VS Code, especially if you’re interested in primarily MS oriented apps.
I have ADHD so I like to try to cut down on the tools so I don’t get overwhelmed. Happy that works for you!
That’s funny, I’m ADHD as well, the context helps me feel a little more in control and helps me sort things out a little better. ADHD is weird.
VS Code is great. I use it for JavaScript (usually Svelte or React) and Python (Django only). It is pretty resource-intensive if you are live-updating everything so don’t go overboard on plug-ins and shut down un-needed apps.
pros:
- clean interface
- good ux
- bunch of extensions
- open source version (vscodium) exists
cons:
- microsoft
- electron app (slow to open)
Thanks so much!
To be clear, Visual Studio Code is the Electron app. Visual Studio is not.
I daily-drive both Visual Studio 2022 and Visual Studio Code in my day job, doing C++ and JavaScript/React development. In general, I find Visual Studio more useful for C++ (especially when debugging) and VS Code more useful for web-based technology like JavaScript. VS is much heavier, and to use it properly you really need to have your solution/projects set up properly. There’s a lot of complexity to the IDE, which is great when you need it but not when you don’t.
VS Code is much lighter-weight and is better if you just want to open a folder as a workspace and do your debugging using something like Chrome dev-tools. I also find search functionality a bit more straightforward in VS Code than VS. The down-side of VS, specifically when talking about compiled languages like C++ and C#, is it’s not set up to build a project out-of-the-box. You have to configure that yourself. That’s not really an issue for something like JavaScript. Another down-side is that you might need to search for an extension to get some functionality you want (such as various language support extensions, or stuff like GitLens), and using a lot of extensions will slow down VS Code.
To sum up, VS 2022 is great for stuff like C++ or C#, where you need the complexity. But VS Code is better for stuff like JavaScript where you don’t.
What are the keybindings to move between panes in VS code? I still haven’t figured out how to manage tabs, splits, panes etc using only the keyboard.
Is it VisualStudio or VisualStudio Code? They’re two separate products.
Visual Studio Installer says ‘Visual Studio Community 2022’. Opening the application it is only called ‘Visual Studio 2022’.
VS Community edition is kind of the demo/education version of Microsoft’s paid line of IDEs. It’s been a long time since I used the community version so I can’t say if the community edition would make for a great daily driver but I use the paid version every day and it has a lot of great tools that make my work a lot easier.
Unfortunately it seems they cut some of the essential debugging tools out in the free version. The Pro/Enterprise editions are out of most folks price range so the paid line is mostly used by folks who get it through work. I guess it may still be worth giving a try if you intend to work on any of the MS developed technologies.
For personal projects I usually use VSCode. It has some unusual quirks due to being designed around extensions but those extensions really turn it into the swiss army knife of IDEs. The “Remote Development” extension especially has been great with my homelab projects as it lets me edit files on my headless Linux VMs from my Windows PC in a relatively user friendly IDE.
Unfortunately it seems they cut some of the essential debugging tools out in the free version.
I’m not seeing many differences between the Community and Professional version of VS. I’ve only ever used Professional on the job, and I haven’t really noticed too much difference in the way Community works when I use it for my hobby stuff.
