I wonder at which point does it make sense to switch from VSCode, regardless of its absolute exemplary use of Electron, to VS2022 for that sweet performance gain on non-M1 Macs.
>at which point does it make sense to switch from VSCode, regardless of its absolute exemplary use of Electron, to VS2022
It seems like those 2 IDEs have different ecosystems:
- VSCode - has more non-NET non-C# coding such as Javascript/Python/Rust -- which means more 3rd-party plugins contributed by the community
- Visual Studio - more emphasis on .NET and C# with all extra bells & whistles such as WPF GUI builder etc.
Yes, one can try to do the opposite of their ecosystem strengths (VSCode for C# and VS2022 for Node.js Javascript) but that's going against the current. In other words, it's not really a Electron-vs-native type of decision. It's about core language ecosystem.
(Microsoft's confusing branding strategy of naming one as "Visual Studio" and the other with 99% identical name of "Visual Studio _Code_" does not make it obvious how those IDEs are positioned for different markets.)
In practice, it means Javascript/Python programmers have more community knowledge/plugins in VSCode than VS2019.
Yes, even though VS2010 added Python language support 5 years before VSCode was released in 2015, they have very different ecosystems and communities.
VSCode is more popular with the Python community (especially in the open source landscape) than VS2019. E.g. virtually all Python/Jupyter data science tutorials use VSCode instead of VS2019.
Even though one code Python in VS2019, a lot of programmers realize they don't code "Python in a vacuum" and want the tech advancements made by the community (plugins, tutorials, etc). VSCode costing $0 also helps too.
That's the point I was trying to make with my parent comment: it's not really comparing Electron runtime vs native code; it's comparing core language ecosystems.
VS2019 is more prominent for companies compiling C++ native apps and C# corporate apps (ASP.NET and WPF projects). That VS2019 also has Javascript and Python support doesn't change the fact that the majority mindshare for js/py is over in VSCode.
Also, the latest dev surveys I saw reported that for Python coders, VSCode recently surpassed Jetbrains Pycharm in popularity.
Best native editor of the current decade, but after years of working with Atom and then VSCode, leaving the JS-everything plugin ecosystem is tough. I constantly want to make the switch myself too.
