Cocoa Switch

Why Visual Studio Code is not for me

Today I spent some time with Visual Studio Code. Just started the app for the first time and it picked the wrong colour scheme1, moreover, it doesn’t even offer the “Auto” mode for switching between Dak and Light appearances in macOS.

The menu bar

I admit the menu bar functionality is better than I expected. However, it fails the simple test of selecting a file and searching for “Finder”. Apps like BBEdit and even Music show the command “Revel in Finder”. In Visual Studio it’s in the context menu but not in the menu strip. They want you to use their command panel which only works with the keyboard. 🙄

Settings

Settings controls are also not accessible through the menu bar and look very much like Chrome settings. The more I use BBEdit settings, there more used I become, I can change most of my preferences without using the search. With Visual Studio settings, I won’t even try, I will only rely on search.

Conclusion

Visual Studio Code is popular right now and possibly is the most popular code editor to this day. I don’t have any problems with it. It’s just not for me. And I doubt it will survive 30 years mark. Does anyone remember Sublime Text?

  1. I prefer the Light Appearance during the day. ↩︎