[pxc]

That's really interesting. What makes VSCode's aesthetic so distinctive and appealing? As an infrequent user of it, I don't really see how it stands out. (The main things that stand out about it to me as an Emacs user is that it has pop-ups/nags/splash tabs that I have to dismiss whenever I open it.)

[laurencerowe]

Not the person you were replying to but I've found VS Code treads the right line for me between editor and IDE. It feels like a text editor first and the UI is pretty similar to SumblimeText and TextMate which I used before, neither of which had much in the way of IDE features.

But I think the reason VS Code has become so popular is that along with its editor centric UI it has Emacs like extensibility. Plugins are easily written in JavaScript and it originated the Language Server Protocol which makes it possible to write language integrations in the target language.

I've not used the newer version of IntelliJ since the redesign, but I always found it somewhat overwhelming, with all this stuff which prevented me from focussing on the code I was writing. The old version had pretty poor UI performance too, whereas the VS Code UI is fast enough that I rarely notice any UI slowdown.

Nevertheless IntelliJ is pretty indispensable for Java/Kotlin development. It's code sense features are excellent and there are a lot of projects out there that don't really build except through IntelliJ's automatic Gradle setup.

FWIW the only pop-up like things I see with VS Code are extension suggestions when I open a file with a new language extension and the monthly update change logs.

[mcluck]

I agree completely. I switch between VS Code and IntelliJ at work so I'm comfortable with both but I would also call the UI in IntelliJ overwhelming. It's covered in buttons, panels coming out in all directions, the Git UI doesn't integrate with the normal file view which makes everything feel cramped when I access it, I've got a variety of pop-ups coming up for all sorts of things, etc.

In VS Code, I usually see a file explorer, the files I have open, the Problems panel and a terminal panel. All of the other stuff is hidden behind sections that, when clicked, simply replace the file explorer. Far less visual clutter

[pacifika]

It takes not a lot of time to disable the toolbar or activate zen / distraction free mode.

[hyperman1]

But that's not the default, and you will need to spend some time finding your way in the product again.

[pxc]

> I've not used the newer version of IntelliJ since the redesign, but I always found it somewhat overwhelming

Complicated GUIs (most GUIs targeting 'advanced' users, IME) likewise cause sensory/attentional overload for me, as well. If an escape from that kind of design is part of what drives people to VSCode, I totally get it! For me, keybindings and a command palette (or similar) are a much more natural way to include lots of cuntionality in an app without making it overwhelming to navigate visually.

[dromtrund]

It's not obvious if you come from emacs, but the keyboard centric navigation is very different from traditional IDEs, that usually come with a wide array of buttons with weird icons at the top.

A few other aspects: - dark mode by default - web tech UI, not terminal - decent looking widgets and decorations

I don't think these are the main selling points for vscode, but they do all of this better than their competitors.

[da39a3ee]

You can configure it to have an extremely minimal UI. I remove the side bar and menu bar and work in Zen mode full screen. People often ask me what editor i'm using.