Change is hard

This isn't about climate (although it's important too), but this is primarily about programming.


I've used various code editors over the years. I started programming with Turbo Pascal (TP), so its IDE was quite natural first step (I'm just ignoring anything related to BASIC before that).

Then came C, and specifically DJGPP. I think it used similar IDE - and specifically similar keyboard shortcuts - as TP so transition there was kinda easy.

A bit later I got my first actual job where Visual Studio C++ was used, and since I used it so much all the keyboard shortcuts used there became very familiar.  So, when a bit later I got C++Builder 4 for my personal use (think of Turbo Pascal for Windows (aka Delphi), but for C++), I set it to use Visual Studio emulation for keyboard.

Later I started working on my own, and since I work mainly with embedded ARM, and with limited budget, C (gcc) and makefiles were natural choice. So no IDE. But I still needed an editor.

Eventually I ended up with editor called syn. It did what I needed, and albeit a bit clunky and limited, it worked for me very well, for long time.

Until now.

Syn hadn't been updated for a while, and some things were starting to annoy me, so I started looking for modern alternatives. I am not fan of, well, massive IDEs like Eclipse so those were immediately out, I just wanted a fast (responsive) code editor.

This process took a long time, but eventually I ended up with Visual Studio Code. Out of the box, so to say, it doesn't do all things I want, but fortunately add-ons fix a lot of that. And in process, I've found several very nice features I hadn't even thought of before. I think I will be using this for a while now.

But there's few things I haven't been able to figure out. One being, how to fix include paths in C/C++ module? There are instructions I've found, but I think they are for older version of VSC as they don't work anymore. Yes yes, go to module settings, fix variable and done. But I just haven't been able to find that setting no matter how I try. Minor issue (as I use make output in shell for issues), but still kinda annoying as there's those red wavy lines everywhere.

Second being "match bracket", as in "go to matching bracket on cursor". Document says something like "shift-ctrl-/". Thanks, how about non-US keyboard layout, please? This I fortunately don't need so often, but when it's needed, it's invaluable.

Now, if only I could also include my make process there with line highlight... But let's take this one step a time...

But I guess I find solutions eventually. Change is hard. Changing code editor, especially so.