from Hacker News

Ask HN: Good Alternatives to VS Code?

by ahmaman on 2/17/22, 5:31 PM with 15 comments

I use VS code as my main code editor and it seem to be the most popular in my bubble.

I am generally happy with with but curious if there are better alternatives that would offer a more productive experience. Curious in particular about WebStorm and Nova.

Any code editors that you are in particular satisfied with?

I do my dev work on a Mac, mainly web development. I generally like to keep my code editor config maintenance minimal.

  • by cwdegidio on 2/17/22, 5:36 PM

    I've used many IDEs... VS Code, VS, Eclipse, etc. (and use Macs exclusively)... end of the day, I swear by any of the JetBrains offerings (IntelliJ, WebStorm, etc). They are definitely more complicated, but they really are a true "development environment". Learning all the features is just something that comes with time, but it is honestly worth it. It's awesome having a space to work in that I never have to actually leave.

  • by danhab99 on 2/18/22, 4:48 PM

    Vim with a near vscode set of plugins https://github.com/danhab99/dotfiles/blob/master/.vimrc . I keep getting weird looks from my boss about my vim, but I produce.

  • by noud on 2/17/22, 6:15 PM

    I like vim.

    But it has a steep learning curve. It might not be the thing you're looking for as it is very different (but not less) than VS code.

  • by linkdd on 2/17/22, 10:26 PM

    There is Sublime Text which is quite nice.

    Vim if you want to grow a beard (just kidding). It's quite powerful and can be turned into a complete IDE.

    As a teenager, I used Geany on Linux, it was quite nice and the first editor I used with an integrated terminal.

  • by logicalmonster on 2/17/22, 6:02 PM

    If you're a Mac Web Developer, check out Nova by Panic. https://nova.app/

  • by nik736 on 2/17/22, 7:43 PM

    I am still using Atom and I will hate Microsoft forever for killing it. For me no other editor comes close in terms of UX.

  • by faangiq on 2/18/22, 3:58 AM

    Nothing. Anything else is a mistake.

  • by tekichan on 2/17/22, 8:45 PM

    Try neovim with add-on plugins

  • by Nasreddin_Hodja on 2/17/22, 10:10 PM

    I use Kdevelop or Kate.

  • by d--b on 2/17/22, 10:31 PM

    WebStorm user here. I seriously don't understand how anyone works differently...

  • by wellokpetejr on 2/17/22, 6:06 PM

    Emacs.

    j/k

    Not really though.