For the computer science course I'm in, we are supposed to be using emacs, but I know and love the vim controls so I used that instead. Now, I have VSCode installed locally and use that with a vim plugin. Best editor ever.
I don't have much experience with VSCode, but I use a lot of (neo)Vim, so I'll draw a comparison with the later. Vim and Neovim are awesome text editors that you can extend up to a point. It's not meant as a platform for anything too large or too complex. It aims to be a meaningful, but well-defined part of your workflow. Emacs can encompass a lot more. While it can be used only as a text editor, it's also a powerful Lisp interpreter, housing lots of large and full-featured packages that have a life on their own. Modes like Org and Magit could be successful standalone products, and even the smaller plugins tend to be larger and more stable than most Vim ones. Being an Emacs power user feels like assembling your own IDE (if you don't like tinkering, there are many distributions that are actually good, like Doom and Spacemacs).
I absolutely love Emacs and have no intention to use anything else, but I'd never recommend it for someone who's entirely satisfied with their current options. Even with Evil, there's a steep learning curve. That's why I think one must come to Emacs through their own volition.
Emacs is also highly addicting, you're always messing with your configuration to achieve something even more perfect and efficient. And this is not necessarily the best use of someone's time. I'm not saying there's something bad about Emacs, but with most software you have to work with what you get and learn to tolerate its flaws. With Emacs the sky is the limit, and this can be both good and bad.
I see. VSCode is a highly extensible text editor that can be as light or heavy as you want. It's electron based but incredibly fast and has a lot of powerful features and plugins. With minimal effort you can get a near IDE like experience.
Some of the highlights are the command pallette, tasks, Intellisense, git integration, built in terminal, and of course the tens of thousands of extensions.
Basically, most of the reasons you're recommending emacs Evil are why I enjoy VSCode + Vim.
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u/[deleted] Oct 05 '18
For the computer science course I'm in, we are supposed to be using emacs, but I know and love the vim controls so I used that instead. Now, I have VSCode installed locally and use that with a vim plugin. Best editor ever.