Comment by utilize1808
2 days ago
How many developers are using VSCode? How does that number compare with Emacs/Vim?
In many ways, GUI was developed as the natural evolution of TUI. X server, with its client-server architecture, is meant to allow you to interact with remote sessions via "casted" GUI rather than a terminal.
Countless engineers spent many man-hours to develop theories and frameworks for creating GUI for a reason.
TUI just got the nostalgia "coolness".
>How many developers are using VSCode? How does that number compare with Emacs/Vim?
How many people eat microwave meals? How many eat gourmet Michelin star dishes?
I don't care "how many use VSCode". My argument Emacs/Vim have great, well loved TUIs. And they are used by a huge number of the most respected coders in the industry. Whether a million React jockeys use VSCode doesn't negate this.
>Countless engineers spent many man-hours to develop theories and frameworks for creating GUI for a reason.
Yes, it sells to the masses. Countless food industry scientists aspend many man-hours to develop detrimental ultra-processed crap for a reason too.
The analogy mostly makes a point for snobbishness, but otherwise doesn’t really work. Most people would rather eat meals prepped by a Michelin star cook, but they can only afford microwave meals - whereas EMacs/Vim and VSCode are equally accessible to anyone.
>Most people would rather eat meals prepped by a Michelin star cook,
You'd be surprised. Most people can't eat anything adventurous or out of the junk-food category with some comfort food staples thrown in.
I love emacs but would never compare that with a Michelin meal! On the contrary, emacs is the DIY option that lets you experiment with whatever ingredients you please without judging your choices!
1 reply →
The vast majority of people don't use the Emacs TUI and it is explicitly recommended to use the GUI.
> My argument Emacs/Vim have great, well loved TUIs.
They... are not great. They provide the absolute bare minimum of an UI.
An UI, even a terminal one, is more than a couple of boxes with text in them. Unfortunately, actual great TUIs more or less died in the 1990s. You can google Turbo Vision for examples.
> How many developers are using VSCode? How does that number compare with Emacs/Vim?
Perhaps I'm in some sort of "TUI bubble", but I'd bet good money that Emacs/Vim users outnumber VSCode users by an order of magnitude. But maybe I'm just surrounded by *nix devs.
I'll take that bet
No need to guess, the SO survey is probably still representative of the state of development environments:
https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/technology#1-dev-id-es
Note that respondents may use multiple tools, but around 76% answered VSCode, whereas 24% answered Vim.
So, I’d wager you’re indeed in a *nix bubble.
That is so different than I expected. Thank you for the link.
It's more indicative of the state of SO users.
Care to bet even those 24% vim devs code circles around the VSCode ones?
The SO survey was skewed to begin with, and by 2025 it covers a much reduced fraction of past users. See:
https://meta.stackoverflow.com/q/437921/1593077
Not that your conclusion is necessarily wrong of course.
> but I'd bet good money that Emacs/Vim users outnumber VSCode users by an order of magnitude
No, no they don't. Enterprise and gaming alone would easily invalidate your bet.
I agree except about the TUI coolness factor. There really is a lot that’s appealing about TUIs, I agree on that with the other commenters here. I want a better synthesis than what we have.
Buddy, I am here to inform you that you are projecting.