Re:C++ Dev Ecosystem 2021
by TeMPOraL on Tuesday July 20, 2021 @04:56AM
(#27891421)
I think VS code - or rather, Language Server Protocol - was a successful execution of a combination of "fire and motion" and "commoditize your complement".
LSP commoditized IDEs, by disentangling IDE features from underlying programming language. To be honest, I'm very grateful for that - that's how I get to write C++ in Emacs, with clangd and lsp-mode, and enjoy most of the benefits of Visual Studio at fraction of performance price (and crashes). What were IDEs complementary to, for Microsoft? Not sure, but I'm guessing the Azure platform.
As for fire and motion - it so happens that LSP is intrinsically tied to VS Code. It may be an open protocol, but VS Code is essentially the reference implementation, so the protocol is shaped by the needs and ideas of Microsoft. Language server development gets directed by MS, while LSP clients play constant catch-up game with VS Code, leading more and more developers to switch to the latter.
I'm not sure whether to consider this a good or bad development: it's pretty clear Microsoft is doing this (and other things, like GitHub acquisition) to cast their nets over the whole practice of software development - but on the other hand, LSP is a genuine improvement for the industry, and huge at that, and with pretty much no strings attached.
LSP commoditized IDEs, by disentangling IDE features from underlying programming language. To be honest, I'm very grateful for that - that's how I get to write C++ in Emacs, with clangd and lsp-mode, and enjoy most of the benefits of Visual Studio at fraction of performance price (and crashes). What were IDEs complementary to, for Microsoft? Not sure, but I'm guessing the Azure platform.
As for fire and motion - it so happens that LSP is intrinsically tied to VS Code. It may be an open protocol, but VS Code is essentially the reference implementation, so the protocol is shaped by the needs and ideas of Microsoft. Language server development gets directed by MS, while LSP clients play constant catch-up game with VS Code, leading more and more developers to switch to the latter.
I'm not sure whether to consider this a good or bad development: it's pretty clear Microsoft is doing this (and other things, like GitHub acquisition) to cast their nets over the whole practice of software development - but on the other hand, LSP is a genuine improvement for the industry, and huge at that, and with pretty much no strings attached.