Fulton Browne

Posted on May 19, 2020

What is the best code editor?

#discuss #watercooler #healthydebate

I am on the search for the best code editor, what are your picks?

Top comments (43)

Michiel Hendriks • May 19 '20

The one that also does my laundry.

Alexandre Jacques • May 19 '20 • Edited

It varies on what I need to do. My main editor is VIM. I use it for Python and JS. My setup is pretty slick and not many plugins or configurations.

I have some freelance stuff that needs to be done in Java. And for that, no better choice than IntelliJ Idea (I even pay for the commercial version).

From time-to-time I try VS Code but, as far as it goes, my brain is too deep into VIM. Even with VIM keybidings I don't feel confortable enough.

Thomas H Jones II • May 23 '20

VIM? Ugh. ed is the one, true editor. =)

Marcus • May 19 '20

Sublime Text for performance reasons. VS Code is ok once in a while, but I come back to ST.

Tharun Shiv • May 19 '20

VS Code is my preference.

Reasons:

Boots and works fast
Extentions like live server, prettier, programming language based extentions, Emmet, Git Lens and more
Git integration
Integrated terminal
Themes

🙂

Tharun Shiv

Web Developer | DevOps Engineer | Programmer | Course Instructor

tharunShiv https://tharunshiv.com

Peter Street • May 20 '20 • Edited

I'd suggest that this is dependent on what you want to do and what your requirements are. Use the best tools for your job. For some, this will be the likes of Visual Studio Code. Others will use Eclipse, JetBrains solutions, 'full-fat' Visual Studio or even something like Vim, emacs or Notepad++...

For scratch operations, things like LinqPad or certain cloud services are useful.

In the interests of answering honestly, I don't think there is a true 'one-size-fits-all' answer to this question.

Simanto Rahman • May 20 '20 • Edited

Till now, Visual Studio Code (VS Code) has been a text editor that has blurred the line between IDE and text editors. I use it like an IDE with heavy extensions helping me making things simpler. My main use-cases are ASP.NET Core, Docker and React. I work with python here and there. And the support it has for all 4 of those is phenomenal.

Adnan Babakan (he/him) • May 20 '20

I think PhpStorm is the best IDE for web development. All in all, IntelliJ based IDEs are the best.

buphmin • May 20 '20

Same, it's features just save you so much time. Worth every penny.

Jon Randy 🎖️ • May 20 '20

SublimeText

Taylor Beeston • May 19 '20

I have found neovim with the right combination of plug-ins and init.vim settings to be better than any other editor I've tried despite giving VSCode, Atom and Sublime Text tries every once in a while.