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My New Favorite Editor: Visual Studio Code

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I’ve been blogging and wiki-ing about Sublime Text since at least 2011. It’s always done everything I need. I’ve tinkered with newer editors like Brackets and Atom but there was never enough ‘whoa’ to draw me away from Sublime.

So it was with some apprehension I started trying Microsoft’s Visual Studio Code. I generally don’t like things Microsoft and wasn’t convinced VSCode was going to change my mind.

But I installed it and tried it out with a few of my current projects:

  • CFML - A great extension and getting better all the time!
  • Python - check!
  • Arduino - much better than the Arduino IDE
  • Robot Framework - check!
  • Docker - check!
  • Source code - git support is built in and there is a great SVN extension

It took me awhile to learn all the ins and outs of a new editor but I quickly became won over. One thing I’ve always wanted in Sublime was an integrated editor. It’s so nice to not have to switch to a terminal to ‘git’ something. VSCode has a terminal built it which was fantastic for source control and working with things like Docker and Robot Framework.

It took about a month to switch. I kept going back and forth between Sublime and VSCode.

Cons? VSCode can be a bit slow to start up, especially compared to Sublime which is blazingly fast. And some extensions can be hit or miss. I have to remember it’s relatively new compared to Sublime which is quite mature and usually trouble free.

I’ve since switched over completely. It’s cross platform so I can use at work on Windows and at home on Linux.