The Ultimate Terminal Showdown: Tabby vs. VS Code
As developers, we spend a significant amount of time interacting with terminals to perform various tasks such as installing packages, debugging, and pushing code to production. The choice of terminal can greatly impact our workflow and productivity. In this article, we’ll compare two popular terminal options: Tabby and VS Code.
What is Tabby?
Tabby is a free and open-source terminal emulator designed to improve users’ workflows. It offers a modern alternative to traditional command-line apps like PowerShell, iTerm, and macOS Terminal. With its sleek and straightforward user interface, Tabby is an accessible option for developers. It’s actively maintained and has a large community of contributors working to improve and enhance its features.
What is VS Code?
Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a free, open-source source code editor developed by Microsoft. It has a built-in terminal feature that allows developers to access and interact with the command-line interface directly from the code editor. The VS Code terminal makes the developer workflow more efficient and productive, allowing us to run commands and scripts as well as navigate through directories without leaving the code editor.
Customizable Terminal
Both Tabby and VS Code offer customizable terminals, but in different ways. Tabby is a highly customizable terminal that includes features like split panes, support for multiple tabs, and the ability to customize fonts and colors. It also supports customization with CSS and keyboard shortcuts using hotkeys. VS Code, on the other hand, uses extensions to provide customization options. The Remote Development extension, for example, allows users to run commands on remote servers using SSH.
SSH Client
Tabby has built-in support for SSH connections, allowing users to easily connect to a remote server by using a public key, password, or agent-forwarding authentication method. VS Code uses extensions to provide SSH functionality. The Remote Development extension is a popular choice for this purpose.
Debugging
The Tabby terminal has built-in DevTools that allow developers to easily debug their application code. Tabby’s debugging features include source code inspection, performance analysis, memory analysis, and more. VS Code is a full-featured integrated development environment (IDE) with full built-in support for debugging. It includes a debugger that supports various programming languages and frameworks with features like breakpoints, watch expressions, and call stacks.
Popularity
According to the 2022 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, VS Code is the most popular development environment for professional developers. Tabby, on the other hand, is a relatively new terminal emulator that is not as widely known or used as VS Code.
Performance
Designed to be lightweight and efficient, Tabby is focused on providing a fast and responsive terminal experience. VS Code, while optimized for performance, can sometimes feel slower or heavier than Tabby Terminal.
Serial Terminal
Tabby Terminal has a built-in Serial Terminal that allows developers to interact with connected serial devices directly from the terminal. VS Code doesn’t have a built-in Serial Terminal, but it uses the Arduino extension to provide Serial Terminal support for developers working with Arduino boards.
Choosing the Right Terminal
Ultimately, the choice between Tabby and VS Code depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you’re looking for a modern and customizable terminal experience, Tabby may be the better choice. If you need a code editor with integrated terminal functionality, VS Code may be the way to go.