Are there any VS Code users around who used to use either Emacs or Vim who might share a few things they feel VS Code does better? I'm curious about these modern editors and sometimes wonder what they have to offer besides possibly being easier to learn (an advantage I'm not interested in).
Vi/Vim user since 1992. Flirted with emacs every so often. I haven't used Vim in 9 months since installing VS Code. Here's why:
1. IntelliSense support is the best outside of Visual Studio itself.
2. Integrated debugging (currently use C#/mono and Python debuggers a lot)
3. Great git integration. Best "GUI" client around. (advanced git features are not provided, but everyday stuff is really well done)
4. Visually appealing. Not saddled with a terminal heritage.
Just to name a few. Yes, Vim and Emacs have all of these, to some degree. But VS Code does them all better (IMO).
It's fun to use. There's a lot to discover, but there's enough there to be productive right from the start.
Thanks! It seems that most of those advantages are not directly about text editing but more about being a better IDE. I guess that for someone like me, that uses Emacs mostly for writing prose and for file management, and only occasionally for programming, the things you mention don't sound as attractive (and when coding I never use a debugger, which is probably a mistake on my part).
Yes, I have used magit while trying to find some love for emacs. It's fine. But I still prefer VS Code's git integration. It's the simplest client I've seen. I don't mind using the command line for git, but if I'm in the editor, I can do anything I need to do for my daily workflow with keyboard commands or point and click, whichever mood I'm in.
And as far as text editing, there is a lot that VS Code provides for getting around and moving around text and windows and files. Multiple cursors and syntax-aware selections provide me what I loved about Vim (macros and text objects). And now I don't drive myself nuts hitting the escape key in every other application where I type some text.
