back to article Angular framework support brings Microsoft's Visual Studio into line with its way cooler little brother, VS Code

Microsoft has released a bunch of updates to its Visual Studio development tool on Windows and Mac, including an extension that provides full diagnostics and code completion for the Angular TypeScript/JavaScript framework. Angular is of special interest to Microsoft developers, despite being a Google-developed open-source …

  1. Version 1.0 Silver badge
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    Another Feature (see icon)

    Microsoft keeps adding "features" to Visual Studio and each "feature" adds complexity, requires more space on the computer and makes it hard to use. I use 2017 and while I have tried 2019 a couple of times, I always end up uninstalling it and returning to 2017 which is a pain to use compared to earlier versions - but it is usable. It has a lot of decent diagnostics and coding help, but it includes a ton of "features" that slow things down if you try to use them.

    Writing applications with Visual Studio is like using Heroin, it makes you feel great when you are coding but then Microsoft adds a feature and you start to want to try a new drug feature.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Another Feature (see icon)

      I used VS for the first (and hopefully last) time in my last job, I'd used unix command line tools since then. I couldn't believe how obtuse and awkward to use VS was. Need to update include paths? oh, its just an option buried 3 levels deep and you have to use some grotty crap font textbox that looks like it was last updated when Gates was still CEO. Ditto link paths. WTF? Want to see detailed error output during compile (err yeah, that might use useful) - just enable this option, Sorry? Why isnt it on by default? And why does VS insist on choosing the application type? What if I want a console application that also uses windows? OK VS, show me where this function is defined , oh, you need 2 minutes for intellinoblloodysense to build its indexes first do you? Dont worry, I'll just use cygwin grep then.

      I couldn't want to get back to a few xterms on linux with edit-compile-run-debug. Simple and effective.

  2. Craig100

    I just wish they'd.....

    Sick and tired of hearing what edge cases that I bet hardly anyone asked for or use keep getting shoe-horned into VS. I was at it's predecessor's launch in the UK in 1997, Visual Interdev, and have been using it and all it's derivatives ever since. ALL I want is for them to fix the bleedin' text editor. Is that too much to ask? I build web sites so constantly using CSS, JS, Razor templates, etc. and if you ever try to cut and paste a bit of code from here to there, the whole page goes tits up. I've learned to Ctrl-Z pretty quick which reverts the auto-formatting, but it's just a PITA. You expend way more key strokes getting back to how you wanted it than their "intellisense" ever saves. In the options they give you myriad ways to switch formatting aspects on or off but not the whole thing for all languages.

    Can't they just get the basics right first and THEN see about adding functionality? I've been ranting on about this for more than a decade but no one from MS is interested. Obviously not conducive to promotion to say your boss made a mess and left it, lol

    1. skotl

      Re: I just wish they'd.....

      Not sure I'd consider Angular an "edge case", or I may have picked you up wrong.

      I was a VS fan (despite all the issues you cite, pretty much all of which I agree with) up until two years ago. Then I discovered Rider and Webstorm from Jetbrains (although, to be honest, you could probably get by with just Rider).

      It's worth a look - a little idiosyncratic, but a total breath of fresh air compared to Visual Studio (and far more grown up and ready-for-action than VS Code, IMO).

      1. Craig100

        Re: I just wish they'd.....

        Agreed, Angular is probably not an edge case but there's plenty of stuff recently that is. I've seen Rider, probably just need a bit of time to give it a proper go. I know plenty that have made the switch.

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