Apache Maven vs Visual Studio Code

Overview

Apache Maven

Stacks3.4K

Followers1.7K

Votes414

GitHub Stars4.8K

Forks2.8K

Visual Studio Code

Stacks186.5K

Followers169.1K

Votes2.3K

GitHub Stars178.2K

Forks35.9K

Apache Maven vs Visual Studio Code: What are the differences?

Introduction:

When it comes to software development, developers have a variety of tools and technologies to choose from. Two popular tools in the industry are Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code. While both of these tools serve different purposes, they are commonly used in software development projects. In this article, we will explore the key differences between Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code.

Build Automation vs. Code Editor: The primary difference between Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code lies in their purpose. Apache Maven is a build automation tool primarily used for Java projects. It provides a comprehensive set of features to manage the build process, including dependency management and project lifecycle. On the other hand, Visual Studio Code is a lightweight code editor that supports multiple programming languages. It provides an intuitive and customizable user interface along with various extensions for code editing and debugging.
Dependency Management vs. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Another significant difference between Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code is their focus. Apache Maven prioritizes dependency management and build automation, ensuring that all required libraries and dependencies are correctly resolved and included in the project. In contrast, Visual Studio Code is more of an integrated development environment (IDE) that offers a wide range of features such as code navigation, code snippets, and integrated debugging to enhance the overall development experience.
XML Configuration vs. Extensibility: Apache Maven relies heavily on XML configuration files to define project settings, dependencies, and build instructions. Developers need to understand and configure these XML files properly to effectively use Maven. On the other hand, Visual Studio Code provides a more straightforward approach with a user-friendly interface. It allows developers to create and modify project settings and build configurations through its graphical user interface or via configurations written in JSON. Additionally, Visual Studio Code's extensibility allows developers to install various extensions to enhance their coding experience further.
Ecosystem and Community Support: Apache Maven has a well-established ecosystem with a vast repository of plugins and libraries available for developers to use. The Maven Central Repository provides a centralized location for hosting and distributing dependencies, making it easy to manage project dependencies. Visual Studio Code, being a versatile code editor, also has a rich ecosystem of extensions that extends its functionality. Its integration with popular version control systems and build tools further enhances its capabilities.
Platform Compatibility: Another key difference between Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code lies in their platform compatibility. Apache Maven is a Java-based tool and is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, is a cross-platform code editor developed by Microsoft. It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it highly flexible and accessible to developers on different platforms.
Learning Curve and Complexity: Apache Maven has a steeper learning curve compared to Visual Studio Code. It requires developers to have a good understanding of its concepts, including project structure, POM (Project Object Model) files, and Maven commands. Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, aims to provide a user-friendly and intuitive environment, making it easier for developers to start working with it quickly. Its simplicity and ease of use contribute to a shorter learning curve for beginners.

In summary, Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code differ in their purpose, focus, configuration approach, ecosystem support, platform compatibility, and learning curve. While Apache Maven is primarily a build automation tool with a strong emphasis on dependency management, Visual Studio Code is a versatile code editor that offers an extensive set of features and can be extended through its rich ecosystem of extensions.

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Advice on Apache Maven, Visual Studio Code

Kamaleshwar

Software Engineer at Dibiz Pte. Ltd.

Jul 8, 2020

Decided

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.

1.36M views1.36M

Comments

Samriddhi

Machine Learning Engineer at Chefling

Sep 26, 2020

Decided

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.

1.04M views1.04M

Comments

Simon

Student at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo

Jan 9, 2020

Decided

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!

1.29M views1.29M

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Apache Maven	Visual Studio Code
Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.	Build and debug modern web and cloud applications. Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.
Simple project setup that follows best practices - get a new project or module started in seconds;Consistent usage across all projects means no ramp up time for new developers coming onto a project;Superior dependency management including automatic updating, dependency closures (also known as transitive dependencies);Able to easily work with multiple projects at the same time;A large and growing repository of libraries and metadata to use out of the box, and arrangements in place with the largest Open Source projects for real-time availability of their latest releases;Extensible, with the ability to easily write plugins in Java or scripting languages;Instant access to new features with little or no extra configuration;Ant tasks for dependency management and deployment outside of Maven	Combines UI of a modern editor with code assistance and navigation; Integrated debugging experience
Statistics
GitHub Stars 4.8K	GitHub Stars 178.2K
GitHub Forks 2.8K	GitHub Forks 35.9K
Stacks 3.4K	Stacks 186.5K
Followers 1.7K	Followers 169.1K
Votes 414	Votes 2.3K
Pros & Cons
Pros 138 Dependency management 70 Necessary evil 60 I’d rather code my app, not my build 48 Publishing packaged artifacts 43 Convention over configuration Cons 6 Complex 1 Inconsistent buillds 0 Not many plugin-alternatives	Pros 341 Powerful multilanguage IDE 310 Fast 194 Front-end develop out of the box 158 Support TypeScript IntelliSense 142 Very basic but free Cons 46 Slow startup 29 Resource hog at times 20 Poor refactoring 14 Poor UI Designer 11 Weak Ui design tools

What are some alternatives to Apache Maven, Visual Studio Code?

Sublime Text

Sublime Text is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. One license is all you need to use Sublime Text on every computer you own, no matter what operating system it uses. Sublime Text uses a custom UI toolkit, optimized for speed and beauty, while taking advantage of native functionality on each platform.

Atom

At GitHub, we're building the text editor we've always wanted. A tool you can customize to do anything, but also use productively on the first day without ever touching a config file. Atom is modern, approachable, and hackable to the core. We can't wait to see what you build with it.

Vim

Vim is an advanced text editor that seeks to provide the power of the de-facto Unix editor 'Vi', with a more complete feature set. Vim is a highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing. It is an improved version of the vi editor distributed with most UNIX systems. Vim is distributed free as charityware.

Notepad++

Notepad++ is a free (as in "free speech" and also as in "free beer") source code editor and Notepad replacement that supports several languages. Running in the MS Windows environment, its use is governed by GPL License.

Emacs

GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more. At its core is an interpreter for Emacs Lisp, a dialect of the Lisp programming language with extensions to support text editing.

Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.

Brackets

With focused visual tools and preprocessor support, it is a modern text editor that makes it easy to design in the browser.

Neovim

Neovim is a project that seeks to aggressively refactor Vim in order to: simplify maintenance and encourage contributions, split the work between multiple developers, enable the implementation of new/modern user interfaces without any modifications to the core source, and improve extensibility with a new plugin architecture.

Bazel

Bazel is a build tool that builds code quickly and reliably. It is used to build the majority of Google's software, and thus it has been designed to handle build problems present in Google's development environment.

VSCodium

It is a community-driven, freely-licensed binary distribution of Microsoft’s editor VSCode.

Related Comparisons

Apache Maven vs Visual Studio Code: What are the differences?

Introduction:

Build Automation vs. Code Editor: The primary difference between Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code lies in their purpose. Apache Maven is a build automation tool primarily used for Java projects. It provides a comprehensive set of features to manage the build process, including dependency management and project lifecycle. On the other hand, Visual Studio Code is a lightweight code editor that supports multiple programming languages. It provides an intuitive and customizable user interface along with various extensions for code editing and debugging.
Dependency Management vs. Integrated Development Environment (IDE): Another significant difference between Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code is their focus. Apache Maven prioritizes dependency management and build automation, ensuring that all required libraries and dependencies are correctly resolved and included in the project. In contrast, Visual Studio Code is more of an integrated development environment (IDE) that offers a wide range of features such as code navigation, code snippets, and integrated debugging to enhance the overall development experience.
XML Configuration vs. Extensibility: Apache Maven relies heavily on XML configuration files to define project settings, dependencies, and build instructions. Developers need to understand and configure these XML files properly to effectively use Maven. On the other hand, Visual Studio Code provides a more straightforward approach with a user-friendly interface. It allows developers to create and modify project settings and build configurations through its graphical user interface or via configurations written in JSON. Additionally, Visual Studio Code's extensibility allows developers to install various extensions to enhance their coding experience further.
Ecosystem and Community Support: Apache Maven has a well-established ecosystem with a vast repository of plugins and libraries available for developers to use. The Maven Central Repository provides a centralized location for hosting and distributing dependencies, making it easy to manage project dependencies. Visual Studio Code, being a versatile code editor, also has a rich ecosystem of extensions that extends its functionality. Its integration with popular version control systems and build tools further enhances its capabilities.
Platform Compatibility: Another key difference between Apache Maven and Visual Studio Code lies in their platform compatibility. Apache Maven is a Java-based tool and is compatible with all major operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, is a cross-platform code editor developed by Microsoft. It is available for Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it highly flexible and accessible to developers on different platforms.
Learning Curve and Complexity: Apache Maven has a steeper learning curve compared to Visual Studio Code. It requires developers to have a good understanding of its concepts, including project structure, POM (Project Object Model) files, and Maven commands. Visual Studio Code, on the other hand, aims to provide a user-friendly and intuitive environment, making it easier for developers to start working with it quickly. Its simplicity and ease of use contribute to a shorter learning curve for beginners.

Apache Maven vs Visual Studio Code

Overview