> Electron means you need 2GB of memory for a simple chat app...

No, it doesn't. Visual Studio Code is an extensible IDE that is stuffed with features - yet it doesn't use that much memory, and it's fast.

And yet there are seemingly simple Electron apps that use a lot of memory and are slow - it seems, just like with any other framework, it's possible to write both good and crappy code.

> No, it doesn't. Visual Studio Code is an extensible IDE that is stuffed with features - yet it doesn't use that much memory, and it's fast.

When I first used Visual Sutdio it was VC++ 6 and I upgraded my machine to have 256MB of RAM so I could run it. What features does VS Code have that VC++ 6 didn't?

I didn't use VC++ 6 myself, but I'll take a guess at a few things:

  - IntelliSense

  - Tasks for external tools

  - Themeable

  - Extensible through plugins, for which there is a large ecosystem

  - Support for many languages, with syntax highlighting and linting (through plugins)

  - Support for different debuggers (e.g. debugging a Cordova app)

  - Support for different version control systems (TFS, Git, SVN...)

  - Minimap

  - Highlighting of all instances of selected text in the scrollbar (don't know if this feature has a name, but it's really useful)

  - Ability to edit multiple lines at the same time

  - Bracket matching

  - Code folding

  - Live, inline reference information

  - Not sure if 'go to definition' or 'go to implementation' was a thing in the days of VC++ 6?

  - Workspace zoom

  - Support for screen readers

  - Integrated terminal

It had most of those things, especially the important ones:

  - IntelliSense - Yes

  - Tasks for external tools - I think so

  - Themeable - Yes, back then you could theme the whole windows desktop and native apps would comply.

  - Extensible through plugins, for which there is a large ecosystem - Kind of, all the "plugins" came from MS.

  - Support for many languages, with syntax highlighting and linting (through plugins) - Yes, not sure how many.

  - Support for different debuggers (e.g. debugging a Cordova app) - Don't think so.

  - Support for different version control systems (TFS, Git, SVN...) - Not sure, it predates everything on that list.

  - Minimap - Don't think so.

  - Highlighting of all instances of selected text in the scrollbar (don't know if this feature has a name, but it's really useful) - Not sure

  - Ability to edit multiple lines at the same time - No

  - Bracket matching - Yes

  - Code folding - Yes (I think)

  - Live, inline reference information - Yes

  - Not sure if 'go to definition' or 'go to implementation' was a thing in the days of VC++ 6? - It was (not sure about goto implementation though)

  - Workspace zoom - Don't know what that is.

  - Support for screen readers - Probably via windows API's, but I'm not sure.

  - Integrated terminal - not sure.

Sure doesn't look like a lot of process in the intervening 20 years.

Huh, kind of impressed it could do so much!

Ah, I missed one important one though:

  - Cross-platform

By 'Workspace zoom', I mean you can dynamically change the zoom level of open files, without having to go through settings menues to increase/decrease the font size

I mean, I have one window open with one file right now and it is using 400MB which is kind of crazy.

I just opened a large project in VS 2017 - 1GB of memory usage, vs 250MB by VS Code.

Sure, 250MB is a lot by 1990 standards, but for something as fully featured as cross-platform VS Code with today's machines (and especially when compared to full VS), it's rather impressive.

I have VS Code with a dozen plugins running, and using about 1GB two editor windows, each with a few tabs open, as well as the terminal (best point of integration imho) in each.

Spotify seems to be using a bit under 200MB.

For comparison, libre-office with a 60-row spreadsheet open is using 145MB.

Frankly, it's not that bad... I've got 16GB on my laptop (thanks apple), and 32gb on my home desktop, though may go threadripper at the end of the year with 64-128gb. It's there to be used.

VS Code is much more responsive than Visual Studio... and the plugins and integration are great. Integrated terminal, and the git integration are nice, though I wish they'd get closer to full 3-way merge support.

Spotify uses Chromium Embedded Framework, not Electron - doesn't change your argument, but it's good to know.

Source: https://www.quora.com/How-did-Spotify-make-a-multiplatform-l...

Many of us still have 8GB systems or even plain 4GB.

Well, Code and the browser are my main two applications... the rest take up very little by comparison. But, you're right, I wouldn't want to rely on a dozen electron based apps being loaded. That doesn't mean it isn't a good option for a lot of things.