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VS Code VS Understanding ES6

Compare VS Code VS Understanding ES6 and see what are their differences

VS Code logo VS Code

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

Understanding ES6 logo Understanding ES6

Get started with the new Javascript
  • VS Code Landing page
    Landing page //
    2024-10-09
  • Understanding ES6 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2026-06-30

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.

Understanding ES6 features and specs

  • Free to read online
    The entire book is available to read for free on Leanpub's website, making it highly accessible to anyone who wants to learn ES6 without any financial commitment.
  • Comprehensive ES6 coverage
    The book provides thorough coverage of all major ES6 features including destructuring, promises, proxies, symbols, iterators, generators, classes, and modules, making it a solid one-stop reference for the specification.
  • Written by a respected authority
    Authored by Nicholas C. Zakas, a well-known and highly respected JavaScript developer and author of several influential JavaScript books, lending credibility and quality to the content.
  • Clear explanations with practical examples
    The book excels at breaking down complex ES6 concepts into understandable explanations accompanied by practical code examples that illustrate how and why each feature should be used.
  • Well-organized structure
    Each chapter focuses on a specific category of ES6 features, making it easy to use both as a sequential learning resource and as a reference guide to look up specific topics as needed.

Possible disadvantages of Understanding ES6

  • Dated content
    Published around 2016, the book does not cover any features introduced after ES6 (ES2015), such as async/await (ES2017), optional chaining, nullish coalescing, and other modern JavaScript additions, making it increasingly incomplete as a modern JS resource.
  • Assumes prior JavaScript knowledge
    The book is targeted at developers who already have a solid understanding of ES5 JavaScript, which means beginners to JavaScript may struggle to follow along without first learning the fundamentals elsewhere.
  • Limited real-world application examples
    While the book explains individual features well, it sometimes lacks larger, real-world project examples that show how multiple ES6 features work together in practical application development scenarios.
  • No coverage of tooling and ecosystem
    The book focuses purely on the language specification and does not discuss the tooling ecosystem around ES6, such as Babel transpilation, webpack bundling, or how to set up a modern development environment to use these features.
  • Text-heavy learning format
    As a traditional book format, it lacks interactive exercises, quizzes, or hands-on coding challenges that many modern learning platforms offer, which can make it harder for some learners to retain and apply the concepts.

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 Understanding ES6

Overall verdict

  • Understanding ES6 by Nicholas C. Zakas is a highly regarded, thorough resource that clearly explains the features introduced in ECMAScript 2015 and beyond, making it a solid choice for developers wanting to modernize their JavaScript skills.

Why this product is good

  • Written by Nicholas C. Zakas, a respected authority in the JavaScript community
  • Provides clear, in-depth explanations of ES6 features rather than shallow overviews
  • Includes practical code examples that illustrate real-world usage
  • Covers important topics like let/const, arrow functions, classes, modules, promises, and destructuring
  • Well-organized structure that builds concepts progressively
  • Available free to read online, lowering the barrier to entry

Recommended for

  • Developers with a solid grasp of ES5 who want to learn modern JavaScript
  • Intermediate programmers looking to deepen their understanding of ES6 features
  • Front-end and Node.js developers transitioning to modern syntax and patterns
  • Self-learners who prefer a structured, book-based approach
  • Teams standardizing on ES6+ who need a reliable reference

VS Code videos

My New Favorite Text Editor - Visual Studio Code

More videos:

  • Review - 7 reasons why I switched to Visual Studio Code from Sublime Text

Understanding ES6 videos

No Understanding ES6 videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to VS Code and Understanding ES6)
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0
Tech
0 0%
100% 100
IDE
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
99 99%
1% 1

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare VS Code and Understanding ES6

VS Code Reviews

  1. dksinden
    ยท Working at SpeechKit ยท

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. Youโ€™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

Understanding ES6 Reviews

We have no reviews of Understanding ES6 yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, VS Code seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 1214 times since March 2021. 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 (1214)

  • 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 / 10 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month ago
  • Notes + Local AI: Simpler Than You Think
    For viewing and navigating, Obsidian handles large markdown libraries well: graph view, tag search, template plugins. VSCode works too if you'd rather stay in your dev environment. Both read the same folder with no conversion needed. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
View more

Understanding ES6 mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of Understanding ES6 yet. Tracking of Understanding ES6 recommendations started around Jun 2026.

What are some alternatives?

When comparing VS Code and Understanding ES6, 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.

JavaScript.com - A free resource for learning and developing in JavaScript

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

Eloquent JavaScript - Free ebook for the JS Beginners

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

Exploring ES6 - Upgrade to the next version of JavaScript