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The Complex Path of Finding a Suitable Editor

Apr 25 2025

I enjoy coding and do it often. Finding a good editor can significantly boost my coding efficiency. Over time, I've tried a wide variety of editors — some large, some lightweight; some popular, others obscure; some user-friendly, while others offered a rather poor user experience. Here's a rundown of the editors I've used and my thoughts on each:

  1. DEV C++
    This was the first editor I used when I started coding. It only supports C++ and has very basic features like compiling, debugging, and running code. However, it lacks autocomplete functionality, which became a major drawback as I progressed. That's the main reason I stopped using it.

  2. Visual Studio
    This is Microsoft's flagship editor. It's powerful, but huge. Even though I only installed the C++ development environment, it still took up about 15 GB. While it's a great tool for some developers, it was too heavy for my needs. Additionally, it mainly supports C++, so I couldn't use it for Python or HTML, which limited its usefulness for me.

  3. JetBrains Suite (PyCharm, CLion, etc.)
    JetBrains offers a range of language-specific editors. I used them for quite a while and really appreciated their features — they're well-designed and enjoyable to use. However, they're quite expensive, and they don't have as many plugins as VSCode. Eventually, I made the switch to VSCode.

  4. VSCode
    This editor is extremely popular worldwide — and for good reason. It's free, powerful, and thanks to its vast plugin community, incredibly flexible. The base install is only about 300 MB, and you can easily add whatever functionality you need through extensions. I still use VSCode regularly today.

  5. Neovim
    When people hear "vim," some say it's the best editor, while others find it hard to learn and not very user-friendly. I've spent quite some time learning Vim and use it often. More recently, I've been using Neovim, the modernized version of Vim. It's the lightest editor I've ever used and, thanks to its plugin ecosystem on GitHub, even more flexible than VSCode.

    That said, Neovim can be tough to configure — you often have to write a lot of config files. To make things easier, I use a project called LazyVim, which simplifies the configuration process significantly. You can view my configuration here.

    However, there's one major drawback: many plugins don't play well with ARM-based chips. Because of that, I can't use my custom Neovim setup for remote development on my Raspberry Pi. In those cases, I still rely on VSCode.

This is the complex process of me finding the editor that suits me best.

寻找合适编辑器的曲折之路

2025年4月25日

我喜欢编程，也经常写代码。找到一个好的编辑器可以大大提高编程效率。这些年来，我尝试了各种各样的编辑器——有大型的，也有轻量的；有流行的，也有小众的；有好用的，也有体验很差的。以下是我用过的编辑器及我对每个的看法：

  1. DEV C++
    这是我刚开始学编程时用的第一个编辑器。它只支持C++，功能非常基础，比如编译、调试和运行代码。但它缺少自动补全功能，随着我的进步，这成了一个很大的缺点。这是我停止使用它的主要原因。

  2. Visual Studio
    这是微软的旗舰编辑器。它功能强大，但体积巨大。虽然我只安装了C++开发环境，但它仍然占用了大约15GB。虽然它对某些开发者来说是个好工具，但对我来说太重了。而且，它主要支持C++，我没法用它写Python或HTML，这限制了它对我的实用性。

  3. JetBrains 套件（PyCharm、CLion等）
    JetBrains 提供了一系列针对特定语言的编辑器。我用了很长一段时间，也非常欣赏它们的功能——设计精良，用起来很舒服。但它们相当贵，而且插件没有VSCode那么多。最终，我转向了VSCode。

  4. VSCode
    这个编辑器在全球极其流行——而且确实名副其实。它免费、强大，凭借庞大的插件社区，灵活性极高。基础安装只有大约300MB，你可以通过扩展轻松添加任何你需要的功能。我至今仍在日常使用VSCode。

  5. Neovim
    一提到"vim"，有人说它是最好的编辑器，也有人觉得它难学、不太友好。我花了不少时间学习Vim，也经常使用它。最近，我一直在用Neovim，也就是Vim的现代化版本。它是我用过的最轻量的编辑器，得益于GitHub上的插件生态系统，甚至比VSCode还灵活。

    话虽如此，Neovim的配置可能很繁琐——你经常需要写大量配置文件。为了简化，我使用了一个叫LazyVim的项目，它大大简化了配置过程。 你可以在这里查看我的配置。

    不过，它有一个主要缺点：很多插件与ARM架构的芯片不兼容。因此，我无法在树莓派上使用我自定义的Neovim配置进行远程开发。在这些情况下，我仍然依赖VSCode。

这就是我寻找最适合自己的编辑器的曲折过程。