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CodePen vs Visual Studio Code: What are the differences?
Introduction
In this article, we will discuss the key differences between CodePen and Visual Studio Code, two popular tools used by developers for coding and development purposes.
CodePen: Collaborative Online Code Editor for web development: CodePen is an online code editor and community for front-end developers to write and share HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code snippets. It provides an easy-to-use interface with built-in features like live preview, code sharing, collaboration, and integration with popular web development libraries and frameworks. CodePen is primarily designed for quickly prototyping and sharing web-related code snippets and projects.
Visual Studio Code: Powerful Code Editor with Rich Features: Visual Studio Code, often referred to as VS Code, is a lightweight but powerful source code editor developed by Microsoft. It offers extensive features and functionality for various programming languages and frameworks. VS Code provides a customizable user interface, integrated terminal, debugging support, version control integration, and a wide range of extensions to enhance the editor's capabilities. It is designed for professional software development and offers a robust and comprehensive environment for coding, debugging, and collaboration.
CodePen: Online-only Environment: CodePen is an online platform that runs entirely in the browser. Users can access and work on their code projects from any device with an internet connection using the CodePen website. It provides a convenient way to share code snippets with others and collaborate in real-time without requiring any local installation or setup. However, as an online-only environment, CodePen may have limitations in terms of performance, offline availability, and dependency on the stability of the internet connection.
Visual Studio Code: Local Code Editor with Integrated Development Environment (IDE) Features: Visual Studio Code is a local code editor that needs to be installed on the user's system. It provides a fully-fledged integrated development environment (IDE) experience with advanced features like IntelliSense code completion, powerful debugging capabilities, built-in Git support, and extensive language support through extensions. Being a local editor, VS Code allows developers to work offline and gives them more control over their development environment.
CodePen: Simplified Code Editing and Prototyping: CodePen focuses on simplicity and ease of use for web developers who want to quickly prototype and experiment with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. It provides a clean and minimalistic coding interface where developers can focus on writing code and previewing the output in real-time. CodePen's simplicity makes it a popular choice for beginners and those who prefer a straightforward environment for web development.
Visual Studio Code: Extensibility and Customization: One of the standout features of Visual Studio Code is its extensibility and customization options. VS Code allows developers to install a wide range of extensions from the marketplace, enabling them to tailor the editor to their specific needs and preferences. These extensions can add support for additional programming languages, provide advanced debugging tools, integrate with cloud platforms and services, and enhance the overall development experience. With VS Code's extensibility, developers can create a personalized coding environment that suits their workflow and requirements.
In summary, while CodePen is primarily an online code editor focused on web development prototyping and collaboration, Visual Studio Code offers a comprehensive local coding environment with powerful features, extensibility, and customization options for professional software development.
Visual Studio Code became famous over the past 3+ years I believe. The clean UI, easy to use UX and the plethora of integrations made it a very easy decision for us. Our gripe with Sublime was probably only the UX side. VSCode has not failed us till now, and still is able to support our development env without any significant effort.
Goland being paid, as well as built only for Go seemed like a significant limitation to not consider it.
I decided to choose VSCode over Sublime text for my Systems Programming class in C. What I love about VSCode is its awesome ability to add extensions. Intellisense is a beautiful debugger, and Remote SSH allows me to login and make real-time changes in VSCode to files on my university server. This is an awesome alternative to going back and forth on pushing/pulling code and logging into servers in the terminal. Great choice for anyone interested in C programming!
Pros of CodePen
Pros of Visual Studio Code
- Powerful multilanguage IDE339
- Fast308
- Front-end develop out of the box193
- Support TypeScript IntelliSense158
- Very basic but free142
- Git integration126
- Intellisense106
- Faster than Atom78
- Better ui, easy plugins, and nice git integration53
- Great Refactoring Tools45
- Good Plugins44
- Terminal42
- Superb markdown support38
- Open Source36
- Extensions34
- Large & up-to-date extension community26
- Awesome UI26
- Powerful and fast24
- Portable22
- Best editor18
- Best code editor18
- Easy to get started with17
- Lots of extensions15
- Built on Electron15
- Crossplatform15
- Good for begginers15
- Extensions for everything14
- Open, cross-platform, fast, monthly updates14
- All Languages Support14
- Easy to use and learn13
- Extensible12
- "fast, stable & easy to use"12
- Totally customizable11
- Git out of the box11
- Faster edit for slow computer11
- Ui design is great11
- Useful for begginer11
- Great community10
- SSH support10
- Fast Startup10
- It has terminal and there are lots of shortcuts in it9
- Powerful Debugger9
- Great language support9
- Works With Almost EveryThing You Need9
- Python extension is fast8
- Can compile and run .py files8
- Great document formater7
- Features rich7
- He is not Michael6
- Awesome multi cursor support6
- Extension Echosystem6
- She is not Rachel6
- Language server client5
- Easy azure5
- SFTP Workspace5
- VSCode.pro Course makes it easy to learn5
- Very proffesional5
- Supports lots of operating systems4
- Has better support and more extentions for debugging4
- Excellent as git difftool and mergetool4
- Virtualenv integration4
- Has more than enough languages for any developer3
- Better autocompletes than Atom3
- Emmet preinstalled3
- 'batteries included'3
- More tools to integrate with vs3
- VS Code Server: Browser version of VS Code2
- Big extension marketplace2
- Customizable2
- Microsoft2
- Light2
- Fast and ruby is built right in2
- CMake support with autocomplete2
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Cons of CodePen
- No support for any other git-server than github4
Cons of Visual Studio Code
- Slow startup46
- Resource hog at times29
- Poor refactoring20
- Microsoft16
- Poor UI Designer13
- Weak Ui design tools11
- Poor autocomplete10
- Super Slow8
- Microsoft sends telemetry data8
- Poor in PHP7
- Huge cpu usage with few installed extension7
- It's MicroSoft6
- No built in live Preview3
- No Built in Browser Preview3
- Poor in Python3
- Electron3
- No color Intergrator3
- Very basic for java development and buggy at times3
- Powered by Electron2
- Bad Plugin Architecture2
- Terminal does not identify path vars sometimes1
- Slow C++ Language Server1