I can't stand using VSCode so I wrote my own

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Frustration with Visual Studio Code’s performance, Electron-based bloat, and erratic behavior has led some developers to build or adopt lean, native-code editors as alternatives. Commenters compare experiences with tools like Sublime Text, Vim/Neovim, Emacs, Zed, and Lapce, weighing trade-offs between speed, extensibility, debugging support, cross‑platform compatibility, and accessibility. Licensing and trust also surface as concerns, especially for proprietary editors positioned as primary development tools.

Performance and Electron vs. Native Editors

  • Many argue it’s easy for native code (like this editor) to vastly outperform Electron-based apps such as VSCode.
  • Others respond that algorithmic efficiency matters more than language alone.
  • Some users find VSCode “fast enough,” especially compared to heavy IDEs, while others report it getting slower over the years, especially with extensions.
  • Background tools (e.g., searches, linters, antivirus) are cited as important contributors to latency, regardless of GUI framework.

Handling Large Files

  • Several comments highlight that huge files (GB-scale JSON/XML) break many editors.
  • Sublime Text, Notepad++, UltraEdit, and VSCode (with some features disabled) are mentioned as able to cope, but often with caveats like turning off syntax highlighting.
  • Users contrast VSCode’s tendency to crash or stall with native editors that eventually complete operations.

Alternatives and Workflows

  • Many suggest Vim/Neovim/Emacs as fast, extensible options, especially now with LSP, Tree‑sitter, and DAP integrations.
  • Counterpoints: Vim/Emacs require significant configuration and have steep learning curves; some find Vim’s modality “inaccessible” or antiquated.
  • Sublime Text, Zed, Lapce, JetBrains IDEs, Theia, and Emacs distributions (e.g., Doom/Spacemacs) come up as alternatives with varying maturity and trade‑offs.

Debugging and Language Support

  • A key motivator for the new editor is good, integrated debugging (especially for C#), which some users feel is lacking or clunky in Vim/Neovim setups.
  • Others note that DAP-based debugging exists for Vim/Neovim/Emacs but report instability or complexity compared to VSCode’s out-of-the-box experience.

Cross-Platform and Implementation

  • The editor uses C++ and SDL; the author reports minimal OS-specific code and good performance across platforms.
  • Discussion notes that cross-platform UIs existed long before Electron via toolkits like Qt/GTK/Java.

Licensing, Trust, and Accessibility

  • The “for personal use only” license is seen as a blocker for corporate use and even some open-source work; “personal use” is viewed as legally vague.
  • Some are wary of running closed-source binaries from an unknown project.
  • VSCode is praised for strong accessibility (including screen reader support); many consider this essential, while others dismiss it as irrelevant to their own needs, prompting pushback emphasizing prevalence of disability and long-term ergonomics.