Java is even worse to be honest, you basically need an IDE for it, so much that VSCode literally ships a build with Java preconfigured.

https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/languages/java#_install-v...

You need an IDE for any language honestly. And I don't see that as a negative.

I have never used an IDE for any language. Some languages make it very easy to set up. Python, Haskell, Rust, Node are extraordinarily straightforwards with basic CLI tooling. others like C++ are more complicated, but the compilers and tooling are extensively documented.

Every company I've worked at has extensive setups regardless of the language. Even supposedly "simple" languages like Python will benefit from IDEs, and it shows. It's especially the case when programs become larger and more complex.

Static types mean some languages benefit from IDEs more than others. Code completion is not very meaningful without types unless you use some machine learning magic.

The nice thing about Typescript is that it was basically designed as an IDE language. It has just enough typing to make the IDE useful and let's you ignore the typing well enough when you need to. It isn't a safe language, just toolable.

I was specifically thinking of dependencies management. VSCode/IDE is kinda out of scope here.

I find the InteliJ product are good IDE. I use VSCode for node stuff and it's fine.

As daily driver, I personally use vim and build with maven. It's boring, nothing ever happen. I need 2 binary and one edit to my $PATH. Once in a while I do use IntelJi, to explore new codebase.

Gradle, Maven etc are also a pain, especially when compared to cargo or other all-in-one package management and build tools.

* * *

It couldn't possibly be that VSCode ships with a build for a language that is enormously popular preconfigured instead?

So? Lots of languages work well with VSCode that aren't TypeScript.

My point is that the REASON VSCode ships with java support is NOT that Java "needs" it.

But I think you knew that.