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.
I used Visual Studio Code for a while and it was pretty good, it was able to do near everything that I wanted it to do.
However, at some point I kept running into some issues with the autocompletion function (intellisense) and the documentation it shows on functions you’re typing. These popups appear underneath the line you edit and kept obscuring code that I wanted to be able to see.
I could not find a setting to move these popups without disabling Intellisense in its entirety, which annoyed me to no end.
That’s why I finally bit the bullet and switched to EMACS a few months ago and while it’s a little less stable, it allows me to configure whatever and however I want to configure. In addition, it allows me to do many things other than programming in the same application. I read my emails in EMACS, I keep to-do lists and agenda in EMACS, I (used to) read Reddit from EMACS. There are lots of possibilities.
EMACS by itself is a very barebones experience, I installed DOOM EMACS, a framework which installs and configures many things for you out-of-the-box, which is very handy for getting started. One potential caveat is that DOOM is designed for vim keybindings which can be difficult to get accustomed to (I love them, though). The vim keybindings can be disabled, though I’m sure there are also other frameworks which take a non-vim approach.
It can be difficult to get started in, but for me EMACS is extremely rewarding.
Edit: I program in Typescript with React, Java, PostgreSQL and Rust all from within EMACS
I use Visual Studio Community Edition to debug D code (works well for the most part, except it doesn’t always want to handle D exceptions - I will try to upgrade the plugin), while I’m using VSCode as my text editor (does not force me to use the VS build system, and instead I can just use dub - best build system, but by build system standard).
I have made the decision to completely switch from full studio to vs code for my c# development about a year ago. and I haven’t regretted it so far. I work in a company that has a lot of microservices so I tend to switch between projects often.
And with the C# dev kit they just released setting vs code up for c# development is no effort.
I also recently started using profiles more in vs code to quickly switch between c# and web development, and I’m a fan.