CodeMirror vs Visual Studio Code

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CodeMirror

698
230
+ 1
15
Visual Studio Code

174.3K
157K
+ 1
2.3K
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CodeMirror vs Visual Studio Code: What are the differences?

Key differences between CodeMirror and Visual Studio Code

  1. Coding Environment: CodeMirror is primarily a browser-based code editor that is embedded into a webpage, allowing users to edit and view code directly in their browser. On the other hand, Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a standalone desktop application that provides a comprehensive code editing and development environment with features like debugging, version control integration, and extensions support.

  2. Supported Languages and Features: CodeMirror supports a wide range of programming languages out of the box, but it lacks some advanced features like automatic code completion, debugging, and integrated terminal. VS Code, on the other hand, supports a vast array of programming languages and offers extensive features including code completion, debugging, integrated terminal, source control management, and more.

  3. Customization Abilities: CodeMirror allows for easy customization, enabling developers to tweak various aspects of the editor's behavior and appearance. However, the level of customization may be limited compared to VS Code, which provides a highly customizable environment with a powerful extension system. Users can install a variety of extensions to enhance their editing experience and add new functionality.

  4. Performance and Size: CodeMirror is lightweight and optimized for fast performance, making it suitable for embedding in web applications with limited resources. VS Code, being a desktop application, may have a larger memory footprint and require more system resources. However, it offers a more powerful set of features and functionality.

  5. Integration with External Tools and Services: CodeMirror can be easily integrated into web applications, allowing developers to build interfaces that incorporate code editing capabilities. VS Code, on the other hand, provides seamless integration with various external tools and services, such as version control systems (Git), build systems, debuggers, and cloud platforms, making it a preferred choice for professional developers working on complex projects.

  6. Community and Support: CodeMirror has a smaller user community compared to VS Code, which has gained significant popularity among developers worldwide. As a result, VS Code benefits from a larger and more active community, offering extensive documentation, tutorials, online forums, and a wide range of community-developed extensions and themes.

In summary, CodeMirror is a lightweight browser-based code editor suitable for web applications, while Visual Studio Code is a feature-rich desktop application for code editing and development with extensive language support, customization options, and integrations with external tools and services.

Decisions about CodeMirror and Visual Studio Code
Samriddhi Sinha
Machine Learning Engineer at Chefling · | 6 upvotes · 968.7K views

Lightweight and versatile. Huge library of extensions that enable you to integrate a host of services to your development environment. VS Code's biggest strength is its library of extensions which enables it to directly compete with every single major IDE for almost all major programming languages.

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Kamaleshwar BN
Senior Software Engineer at Pulley · | 12 upvotes · 1.3M views

Visual Studio Code became famous over the past 3+ years I believe. The clean UI, easy to use UX and the plethora of integrations made it a very easy decision for us. Our gripe with Sublime was probably only the UX side. VSCode has not failed us till now, and still is able to support our development env without any significant effort.

Goland being paid, as well as built only for Go seemed like a significant limitation to not consider it.

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Simon Ibssa
Student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo · | 2 upvotes · 1.2M views

I decided to choose VSCode over Sublime text for my Systems Programming class in C. What I love about VSCode is its awesome ability to add extensions. Intellisense is a beautiful debugger, and Remote SSH allows me to login and make real-time changes in VSCode to files on my university server. This is an awesome alternative to going back and forth on pushing/pulling code and logging into servers in the terminal. Great choice for anyone interested in C programming!

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Pros of CodeMirror
Pros of Visual Studio Code
  • 6
    Integrable in your application
  • 4
    Better content manipulation methods
  • 3
    Easy Custom Mode
  • 1
    JavaScript based
  • 1
    Easy setup
  • 339
    Powerful multilanguage IDE
  • 308
    Fast
  • 193
    Front-end develop out of the box
  • 158
    Support TypeScript IntelliSense
  • 142
    Very basic but free
  • 126
    Git integration
  • 106
    Intellisense
  • 78
    Faster than Atom
  • 53
    Better ui, easy plugins, and nice git integration
  • 45
    Great Refactoring Tools
  • 44
    Good Plugins
  • 42
    Terminal
  • 38
    Superb markdown support
  • 36
    Open Source
  • 34
    Extensions
  • 26
    Large & up-to-date extension community
  • 26
    Awesome UI
  • 24
    Powerful and fast
  • 22
    Portable
  • 18
    Best editor
  • 18
    Best code editor
  • 17
    Easy to get started with
  • 15
    Lots of extensions
  • 15
    Built on Electron
  • 15
    Crossplatform
  • 15
    Good for begginers
  • 14
    Extensions for everything
  • 14
    Open, cross-platform, fast, monthly updates
  • 14
    All Languages Support
  • 13
    Easy to use and learn
  • 12
    Extensible
  • 12
    "fast, stable & easy to use"
  • 11
    Totally customizable
  • 11
    Git out of the box
  • 11
    Faster edit for slow computer
  • 11
    Ui design is great
  • 11
    Useful for begginer
  • 10
    Great community
  • 10
    SSH support
  • 10
    Fast Startup
  • 9
    It has terminal and there are lots of shortcuts in it
  • 9
    Powerful Debugger
  • 9
    Great language support
  • 9
    Works With Almost EveryThing You Need
  • 8
    Python extension is fast
  • 8
    Can compile and run .py files
  • 7
    Great document formater
  • 7
    Features rich
  • 6
    He is not Michael
  • 6
    Awesome multi cursor support
  • 6
    Extension Echosystem
  • 6
    She is not Rachel
  • 5
    Language server client
  • 5
    Easy azure
  • 5
    SFTP Workspace
  • 5
    VSCode.pro Course makes it easy to learn
  • 5
    Very proffesional
  • 4
    Supports lots of operating systems
  • 4
    Has better support and more extentions for debugging
  • 4
    Excellent as git difftool and mergetool
  • 4
    Virtualenv integration
  • 3
    Has more than enough languages for any developer
  • 3
    Better autocompletes than Atom
  • 3
    Emmet preinstalled
  • 3
    'batteries included'
  • 3
    More tools to integrate with vs
  • 2
    VS Code Server: Browser version of VS Code
  • 2
    Big extension marketplace
  • 2
    Customizable
  • 2
    Microsoft
  • 2
    Light
  • 2
    Fast and ruby is built right in
  • 2
    CMake support with autocomplete

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Cons of CodeMirror
Cons of Visual Studio Code
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    • 46
      Slow startup
    • 29
      Resource hog at times
    • 20
      Poor refactoring
    • 16
      Microsoft
    • 13
      Poor UI Designer
    • 11
      Weak Ui design tools
    • 10
      Poor autocomplete
    • 8
      Super Slow
    • 8
      Microsoft sends telemetry data
    • 7
      Poor in PHP
    • 7
      Huge cpu usage with few installed extension
    • 6
      It's MicroSoft
    • 3
      No built in live Preview
    • 3
      No Built in Browser Preview
    • 3
      Poor in Python
    • 3
      Electron
    • 3
      No color Intergrator
    • 3
      Very basic for java development and buggy at times
    • 2
      Powered by Electron
    • 2
      Bad Plugin Architecture
    • 1
      Terminal does not identify path vars sometimes
    • 1
      Slow C++ Language Server

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    - No public GitHub repository available -

    What is CodeMirror?

    CodeMirror is a JavaScript component that provides a code editor in the browser. When a mode is available for the language you are coding in, it will color your code, and optionally help with indentation.

    What is Visual Studio Code?

    Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

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    What companies use CodeMirror?
    What companies use Visual Studio Code?
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    What tools integrate with CodeMirror?
    What tools integrate with Visual Studio Code?

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    What are some alternatives to CodeMirror and Visual Studio Code?
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