this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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Idk, without a good collaborative mode there's really not much you can do to differentiate yourself from existing options. Without some feature like that it's hard to think of a reason to build yet another text editor.
maybe a couple years ago but for instance I think AI is definitely becoming more realistically applicable with each iteration. It could definitely be used more to remove some of the boiler plates in coding, like simple unit tests etc.
Also there are IDEs which are very good for their specific languages but I feel like it is hard to find a reliable editor that has core IDE capabilities for many languages (like go to function definitions, code linting etc). I even started using VIM because of this but I just can't get used to modal editors and feel like there is no point in using VIM if I am only using %5 of its capabilities.
As far as I've seen many code Ai assistants operate over the LSP framework and work in most editors, and maybe a chat window that's pretty easy to add to most editors via a plug-in. Adding something like live collaboration is a bit more legwork
What features do you feel are missing from something like vscode? I'm a long time vim/neovim user but most of my co workers use vscode for everything with no complaints. I've actually been pretty jealous of stuff like jupyter integration.
If you can't get used to vim, it might be worth checking out something like Helix it's editing model is a bit different and clicks better for some people.
Thanks for the suggestions. I have not tried the recent vscode. I had tried it way back in uni and really didn't like it at the time so never tried it again but I have also heard positive things about it from some other people so probably time to reevaluate. I think for me, must haves are: it must work with python and C minimal. Autocompletion, function definition, goto, code linting are the first things that come to mind (don't need debugger and I guess that is not an editor's job, python has its own module and for C there is gdb for advanced needs). In VIM, I could achieve these via plugins ofcourse.
I also haven't tried Helix but Neovim was on my mind for a while. Are Helix and Neovim different from each other in terms of editor mode styles? I will also check Pulsar (continuation of Atom), hopefully soon I will get an editor that I feel at home with.
I think vscode has definitely come a long way since it first dropped several years ago. You can definitely get auto complete, goto, lining, etc. Via the LSP framework, so all those things should work for python and c with some plugin installs and maybe a bit of configuration. The built in debugging support is also really nice.
Neovim is basically the same as vim in terms of its editing modes. Vim and neovim use a action -> select paradigm eg. To delete a word you would type d (for the delete action) then w (to select the word). Helix uses a select -> action paradigm so to delete a word you would press w then d. One of the nice things about this is you can see what text you'll be operating on before you actually perform an action. Helix also supports multiple cursors, which can be more familiar if you're used to sublime, atom, etc. Both have support for LSP so you can basically get code intelligence on par with most IDEs for many languages. Helix is generally a bit easier to configure if you're just using the base package, but isn't as customizable and doesn't support plugins yet.
If you want to check out neovim I'd recommend using a pre-built configuration like Lunarvim or Lazyvim these are just configuration distributions that take a lot of the legwork out of bringing neovim up to par with modern editors. Think of it like copying someone's dot files.
Thanks! by the way I meant I tried visual studio back in uni and always assumed vscode would be sth similar but now I realize not
I think you might like the nvchad project it has some features that make you not rely 100% on keystrokes for everything, also a integrated cheatsheet just in case