VS Code VS GNU Emacs

Compare VS Code VS GNU Emacs and see what are their differences

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VS Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

GNU Emacs

GNU Emacs is an extensible, customizable text editor—and more.

Landing page //
2024-10-09

Landing page //
2023-01-19

VS Code

Website: code.visualstudio.com
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Startup details
Country: United States

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GNU Emacs

Website: gnu.org
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VS Code features and specs

Cross-platform
VS Code works on Windows, macOS, and Linux, providing a consistent development experience across different operating systems.
Extensibility
A vast library of extensions allows users to add functionalities like debuggers, linters, and themes, making it highly customizable.
Integrated Git
Built-in Git integration makes it easy to manage version control tasks directly within the editor.
Performance
Lightweight compared to full-fledged IDEs, ensuring good performance even on systems with limited resources.
IntelliSense
Advanced code completion and refactoring tools help improve coding efficiency and reduce errors.
Community Support
A strong and active community provides extensive support, tutorials, and third-party extensions.
Debugging
Robust debugging tools for various languages and frameworks are available out of the box.
Free and Open-Source
VS Code is completely free to use and open-source, which is beneficial for both individual developers and organizations.

Possible disadvantages of VS Code

Limited IDE Features
While extensible, it may lack some advanced features found in dedicated IDEs out of the box.
Extension Management
Managing and configuring a large number of extensions can become cumbersome and sometimes lead to performance issues.
Learning Curve
Although user-friendly, it has a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its numerous features and customization options.
Memory Usage
Despite being lightweight, it can consume a significant amount of memory when multiple extensions are installed.
Update Frequency
Frequent updates may sometimes introduce bugs or require users to adapt to new changes quickly.
Internet Dependency
Some features and extensions may require an internet connection to function optimally.
Telemetry
By default, VS Code collects usage data, which might be a concern for users sensitive about data privacy. However, this can be disabled.

GNU Emacs features and specs

Highly Extensible
GNU Emacs is highly customizable, allowing users to configure nearly every aspect using Emacs Lisp. This makes it remarkably adaptable for various workflows.
Rich Plugin Ecosystem
There is a wide array of plugins available for Emacs, extending its functionality for programming, text editing, project management, and more.
Versatile
Aside from text editing, Emacs can function as an email client, web browser, terminal emulator, and more, making it a powerful multi-purpose tool.
Free and Open Source
GNU Emacs is free to use and modify, with source code available under the GNU General Public License, encouraging collaborative improvement and transparency.
Cross-Platform Support
Emacs runs on many different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and various Unix-like systems, ensuring a wide reach and consistent experience across platforms.

Possible disadvantages of GNU Emacs

Steep Learning Curve
Due to its vast array of features and unique keybindings, new users often find Emacs difficult to learn initially.
Performance
Emacs can be slower compared to more lightweight text editors, especially when heavily customized or handling large files.
Keyboard-Centric Interface
Emacs relies heavily on keyboard shortcuts, which can be overwhelming and complex, leading to potential finger strain from extensive use.
Complex Configuration
While its customizability is a strength, configuring Emacs to fit personal needs can be time-consuming and complex, requiring knowledge of Emacs Lisp.

Analysis of VS Code

Overall verdict

Yes, VS Code is generally considered a good choice for developers due to its flexibility, efficiency, and strong community support. It is lightweight, fast, and user-friendly, catering to both novice and experienced developers.

Why this product is good

VS Code, developed by Microsoft, is a widely popular and versatile code editor. It offers a robust extension ecosystem, which allows developers to customize their workflow and coding environment extensively. Additionally, VS Code supports numerous programming languages right out of the box and provides features like IntelliSense, debugging, Git integration, and a built-in terminal, making it a powerful tool for developers.

Recommended for

Web developers looking for a comprehensive yet lightweight coding environment.
Software developers who need an editor with extensive language support and customization options.
Beginner programmers who would benefit from a feature-rich editor that can grow with their skills.
Developers interested in an open-source tool with continuous updates and community-driven enhancements.

Analysis of GNU Emacs

Overall verdict

GNU Emacs is widely considered to be a powerful and versatile text editor, especially among programmers and developers.

Why this product is good

Highly Customizable: Emacs can be extensively customized with Emacs Lisp, enabling users to tailor the editor to fit their specific workflow.
Rich Ecosystem: There is a large variety of plug-ins and extensions available, which can transform it into much more than just a text editor.
Built-in Tools: Emacs includes numerous built-in tools such as a debugger, calendar, email client, and file manager, making it a comprehensive development environment.
Cross-Platform: Emacs runs on multiple platforms, which makes it accessible to a broad audience.

Recommended for

Programmers and developers who appreciate a customizable and extensible tool.
Users who want to integrate various development tools into a single environment.
Individuals comfortable with learning Emacs Lisp to create and understand custom scripts and configurations.
People interested in a text editor that has a strong and supportive community.

VS Code videos

+ Add

My New Favorite Text Editor - Visual Studio Code

GNU Emacs videos

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Switching to GNU Emacs

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and GNU Emacs)

GNU Emacs

Text Editors

91 91%

Text Editors

9% 9

IDE

88 88%

IDE

12% 12

Developer Tools

100 100%

Developer Tools

0% 0

IDEs And Text Editors

0 0%

IDEs And Text Editors

100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using VS Code and GNU Emacs. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare VS Code and GNU Emacs

VS Code Reviews

dksinden

· Working at SpeechKit · over 6 years ago

Boost Your Productivity with These Top Text Editors and IDEs

Visual Studio Code, commonly known as VS Code, is a powerful and extensible code editor developed by Microsoft. With its rich ecosystem of extensions and features like IntelliSense, debugging, and Git integration, VS Code enhances your coding productivity.

Source: convesio.com

13 Best Text Editors to Speed up Your Workflow

Finally, the Visual Studio Code website has numerous tabs for you to learn about the software. The documentation page walks you through steps like the setup and working with different languages. You’re also able to check out some tips and tricks and learn all of the Visual Studio Code keyboard shortcuts. Along with a blog, updates page, extensions library and API...

Source: kinsta.com

Jupyter Notebook & 10 Alternatives: Data Notebook Review [2023]

Previously, VS Code was more suited to developers or engineers due to its lack of data analysis capabilities, but since 2020, the VS Code team has collaborated with the Jupyter team to create an integrated notebook within VS Code. The end result is a fantastic IDE workbook for data analysis.

Source: lakefs.io

The Best IDEs for Java Development: A Comparative Analysis

Overview: Although not a traditional IDE, VS Code has gained popularity as a lightweight code editor.

Source: dev.to

20 Best Diff Tools to Compare File Contents on Linux

Visual studio code is a code editor made by Microsoft. It supports several development operations like debugging, task running, and version control. It works on Linux, macOS and Windows operating systems.

Source: linuxopsys.com

GNU Emacs Reviews

14 BEST LaTeX Editor for Mac & Windows in 2022

Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It is one of the best LaTeX editor for Mac that allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.

Source: www.guru99.com

The Top 7 Notepad++ Alternatives for You

Emacs has been around in its various forms since 1976 and is another very worthy Notepad++ alternative. When I first started using Emacs I have to admit that I didn’t find it the easiest to use. But once I got used to it I realized just how powerful Emacs is for the programming community.

Source: www.technize.com

10 Best Notepad++ Alternatives in 2020

Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.

Source: www.guru99.com

7 open source alternatives to Dreamweaver

Vim or Emacs. Without participating in the holy war between these two traditional text editors, I can safely say that there are a number of enhancements for web editing available for both. So if you're already a terminal junkie, take your pick. Or, if those don't satisfy, try one of these Emacs/Vim alternatives.

Source: opensource.com

10 Best Sublime Text Alternatives in 2019

Emacs is a Unix based text editor tool which is used by programmers, engineers, students, and system administrators. It allows you to add, modify, delete, insert, words, letters, lines, and other units of text.

Source: www.guru99.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be a lot more popular than GNU Emacs. While we know about 1215 links to VS Code, we've tracked only 6 mentions of GNU Emacs. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

VS Code mentions (1215)

History of JavaScript: Browser wars, ECMAScript, Node.js, TypeScript, and React
Visual Studio Code, a code editor created by Microsoft, was first introduced on April 29, 2015, at the Build conference. - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
How to Get Your First Tool Online
The step up from there is an editor with a built-in agent like Cursor, Google Antigravity, Windsurf, or VS Code with a coding extension. These are code editors with an AI agent living inside them, and the difference is the responsible party for getting things from place to place. Instead of the software creator shuttling code between windows, the AI agent edits the project files directly and runs the GitHub and... - Source: dev.to / 26 days ago
Agentic Engineering: What Does AI Coding Really Cost?
For IDE-heavy teams, BYOK (bring your own key) can be interesting, no matter whether you live in WebStorm or VS Code. On the JetBrains side, the JetBrains AI plans and Junie BYOK docs allow it, and most VS Code AI extensions offer the same idea: keep the IDE, connect provider keys, pay the provider. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
Best Markdown Editors for Developers
Option 1: Raw editing in IDE. You open the .md file in VS Code or whatever you use. Syntax highlighting shows you the structure. Maybe you toggle a preview pane. This works for quick edits but becomes painful for anything involving tables, diagrams, or complex formatting. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
Document Generation for Developers: Security, Compliance, and Build-vs-Buy Decisions for the Template-Plus-Data Pipeline
You'll need Python 3.8+ and pip for the quickstart, with venv recommended for isolation. Install the requests library for HTTP calls. VS Code with the Python extension works well as an editor, though PyCharm or Sublime Text work equally well. You'll also need a free Foxit developer account. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago

GNU Emacs mentions (6)

Emacs daemon as sytemd service in debian 12 (gnome)
Cat .config/systemd/user/default.target.wants/emacs.service [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1) https://gnu.org/software/emacs/ [Service] Type=notify ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/emacs --fg-daemon # Emacs will exit with status 15 after having received SIGTERM, which # is the default "KillSignal" value systemd uses to stop services. SuccessExitStatus=15 # The location of the... Source: about 3 years ago
Why does emacs exec path variable not just copy the users path variable?
## If your Emacs is installed in a non-standard location, you may need ## to copy this file to a standard directory, eg ~/.config/systemd/user/ . ## If you install this file by hand, change the "Exec" lines below ## to use absolute file names for the executables. [Unit] Description=Emacs text editor Documentation=info:emacs man:emacs(1)... Source: over 3 years ago
Hi DM's, what medium do you use to organise your campaign?
For gathering notes, writing and organizing, Org-Roam which implies Org and Emacs. Source: almost 4 years ago
This Guy is getting out of control at this point.
I was heading to gnu.org/software/emacs to prove my point and it said:. Source: over 4 years ago
opam doesn't see emacs?
<><> Version-specific details <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> 🐫 Version 1 Repository default Homepage: "http://gnu.org/software/emacs" Bug-reports: "https://github.com/ocaml/opam-repository/issues" Authors: "anil@recoil.org" Maintainer: "anil@recoil.org" License: "GPL-1.0-or-later" Flags: conf Synopsis Virtual package to install the Emacs editor Description This... Source: over 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and GNU Emacs, you can also consider the following products

Sublime Text - Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, html and prose - any kind of text file. You'll love the slick user interface and extraordinary features. Fully customizable with macros, and syntax highlighting for most major languages.

Vim - Highly configurable text editor built to enable efficient text editing

Node.js - Node.js is a platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

Microsoft Visual Studio - Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft.

Notepad++ - A free source code editor which supports several programming languages running under the MS Windows environment.

IntelliJ IDEA - Capable and Ergonomic IDE for JVM

Sublime Text vs VS Code

Sublime Text vs GNU Emacs

Microsoft Visual Studio vs VS Code