A friend told me that VSCode is somewhat like an IDE and was comparing VSCode with Webstorm...

Am i right that VSCode is a text editor and not a freacking IDE ? ☺️

Yes. VsCode is an editor with a wide range of plugins that brings it up to near par with an ide depending on what you install of course, but it's still a text editor in a browser.

@C0D4 not in a browser, and not just a text editor since it has support for debugging and as you said, with plugins most of what you need out of an ide.

A bit like eclipse but much faster, easier to install and configure.

So if eclipse is just a text editor, yes then vscode could be said to be a text editor.

But with a few plugins you can build, compile run and debug your code without ever leaving vscode.

It even handles the webserver config for such projects :)

So no, as a user of both Eclipse, Visual Studio and old Turbo Pascal IDE and a dozen orher over the last 40 years, I would rank VSCode as an IDE.

@Voxera not a browser?
It runs on NodeJS and Electron, there's nothing about that, that isn't a browser. 🤷‍♂️

But for a browser based application, it's easy to mistake it for an IDE when your entire code, build, debug and deployment process can be achieved without leaving the program for a variety of languages and platforms.

@C0D4 A browser is a bit more than that ;).

At least in my opinion

Yes its running on top of the same tech as a browser, but so is firefox.

Is firefox then a browser running in a browser?

But what is missing in your opinion for it to be a real IDE?

I would not disqualify an IDE just because it was running in a browser, just as a browser based wordprocessor is still a wordprocessor.

@Voxera that's why I said browser based, but I think VsCode sits in that grey area between the two.

Out of the box, it's a text editor, but with enough plugins it quickly leaves the text editor realm and creeps into the IDE area of things, but it comes down to the ability to customise it that separates it, and the right customisations to get it into a fully functional IDE.

@C0D4 That definition I can agree with :)

Yes, out of the box its a fancy text and code editor with plugin support.

But just like Eclipse, its more of an editor framework where you create your IDE.

I do not know if there are ways to create ready made packages of vscode with a set of plugins like I know they did with eclipse for the php editor/IDE (cant remember the name now).

I think the debugging stuff takes it out of the text editor category. And that's just out of the box. The debugging features are part of vscode itself. You need plugins to use them but they're still there.

Maybe it's a tree falling in the forest situation but I think it shows the intention of its designers.

Plus how many text editors have an integrated terminal?

@M3m35terJ05h same with gut support. No other text editor has git support.

@Voxera well the build tools are open source so you could setup a build server and release your custom version of VSCode preconfigured for lets say java development

is FirefoxOS a browser? @C0D4

@010001111 I think you missed the point.

"Browser based" != "browser"

And yes, firefoxOS was a browser based OS on top of a kernel, much like ChromeOS.

vscode is text editor

whole point of ide is that it is integrated (first letter). it is eclipse, all jetbrains stuff, vs (studio)...

integrated means no plugins needed to do the work

if we compare stuff like that then i'm coding in os within os, i can send emails through emacs and play games, but all that discussion is useless you use what suits you

and yes, vscode is electron so it is browser after all :)

@Voxera what the fuck are you talking about

It's the super hero of text editors of that makes sense.

@voxera vscode supports installing extensions via command-line, perhaps a sh script will do?

It was a text editor by with the power of extensions it has become an IDE.

I think that the vs-code page stated that ms tried to make a tool that is as fast as an editor but also has somewhat the functionality of an ide.
If i remember correctly there was also a chart where ms themself would put vs-code between an editor and an ide, so one could argue that it's neither or both.

If you want to use a real editor than learn vim or emacs and keep your hands of the chrome-sub-editor fuckery.

@gopher3004 So if I sell vscode with a paid extension pack, can I call it browser-based IDE? 🤷🏼‍♂️

@010001111 yup

its still hackable editor

@yellow-dog could you specify what you are referring to :)

Most others commenting does not seem to have a problem understanding but I would be happy to explain my reasoning.

But as always in cases like this where there are no clear cut definition, its mostly my own opinion which any one if free to agree or disagree with ;)

@Voxera your second comment. Vscode is lterally a browser app, running in a browser. And what the fuck you mean by firefox is a browser in a browser lmao

@yellow-dog firefox at least originally when it was called phoenix was written in javascript, css and xul which is xml based templating and all this was then run by the html, js, network and css engine from the mozilla project.

So the whole ff gui was basically a webpage built in xml.

Quite a bit like how vscode is built ;)

Electron is basically the same idea but packaged as a platform for application development.

Yes its composed of web technologies but it is not a browser as a browser is an application of such tech or one purpose.

Vscode is an application of the same tech for another purpose.

You cannot really use electon by it self to browse the web, just as you could not use the html, js engine and network dll to bows the web without the firefox code to link them all together.

For something , in my opinion, to be a browser app it has to run in a browser and be able to be loaded over the internet.

@Voxera wtf are you even saying?!
Using Electron based applications is equivalent to opening a new chrome window only for one page. The only fucking difference is that you don't need to fetch new code from a server every time you hit a button.

@yung-stallman not quite since node has networking, filesystem and hardware access available which are impossible to do from browsers for obvious security reasons. But it shares same Javascript runtime

@Voxera you can literally navigate away to another web page in an electron app

Didnt know that about firefox tho, interesting stuff.

@yung-stallman and still VsCode is very very fast and extremely competent and cross platform AND open source.

To dismiss it just because its built on electron is in my opinion naive and just works to limit you :)

Just as every one dismissing Java because some applications was slow or Javascript because its “just a scripting language”

@Voxera I have never said that it was slow or incompetent (or closed source but whatever)

Frankly you are the one being stupid about this. Just because you don't mind about one itsy bitsy aspect doesn't mean it's not rational to mind about it.
I am for sure not limiting myself lol. It's not like there no (better) other options. I am just saying that in my opinion having an entire web browser as a core of a text editor is an absurd overkill.

Yeah but if someone doesn't want to use java or js or any other language or technology they have the right to do so and whatever they have chosen no to use they sure as heck won't miss out on stuff they really want to do/work on.

@yung-stallman you referred to opening a new Chrome window and since Chrone has a reputation of eating memory I assumed you meant that vscode was slow or a memory hog.

You also started your first comment with foul language which I do not appreciate.

I apologize if I overreacted.

Can we just get some hot chocolate and be calm while we still can?

@Voxera i mean i would argue that electron based apps are memory hogs

it's all good no need to apologize

@yung-stallman "virtualization" and "seperation" is unneccessary for a text editor.

CHANGE MY MIND