Okay, so today I’m gonna walk you through my experience comparing Monaco Editor with Le Havre. Yeah, you heard it right, not the city, but the Le Havre editor! Let’s dive right in.
First things first, setting the stage. I had this project, a web-based IDE, and I needed a code editor. A proper one, not just a text area with some fancy colors. I wanted features like syntax highlighting, code completion, and all that jazz.
Round 1: Monaco Editor. I started with Monaco because, well, it’s the editor that powers VS Code. You know, the king of code editors. Getting it set up was pretty straightforward. I just grabbed it from npm, threw it in my React component, and boom, code editor! The syntax highlighting was on point, and the code completion was surprisingly good right out of the box.
- What I liked: Super easy to get started, VS Code-level features, tons of themes and languages supported.
- What I didn’t like: The documentation can be a bit overwhelming. It’s like drinking from a firehose. Also, the bundle size was a bit hefty for my liking.
Round 2: Le Havre. Then I stumbled upon Le Havre. It’s a bit of a hidden gem, not as widely known as Monaco. I was intrigued by its promise of being lightweight and customizable. The initial setup was a little trickier. I had to wrestle with some Webpack configurations and figure out how to import the right modules. It wasn’t plug-and-play like Monaco, but nothing crazy.
- What I liked: Seriously lightweight! The bundle size was significantly smaller than Monaco. It felt snappier, especially on slower connections. Plus, it felt more “raw,” like I had more control over the editor’s behavior.
- What I didn’t like: The initial setup was a bit of a pain. Also, the feature set wasn’t as complete as Monaco. I had to roll my own code completion and linting, which took some time.
The Nitty-Gritty: Diving Deeper
Monaco
I spent a lot of time digging into Monaco’s API, trying to squeeze every last drop of performance out of it. One thing I noticed was that the editor gets a bit sluggish with larger files. I tried various optimization techniques like virtualizing the editor content and debouncing input events, but the performance was still not ideal.
Le Havre
With Le Havre, I had to build a lot of features from scratch. Implementing code completion was particularly challenging. I ended up using a trie data structure to store the available code snippets and suggestions. It worked, but it was definitely more work than just using Monaco’s built-in code completion.
The Verdict: So, who won? Well, it depends. If you need a full-featured editor with minimal setup, Monaco is the way to go. But if you’re obsessed with performance and want a super lightweight editor, Le Havre is worth considering. For my specific project, I ended up going with Le Havre. The smaller bundle size and the ability to customize the editor to my exact needs were more important than the extra features that Monaco offered.
Lessons Learned: Don’t always go with the “industry standard.” Sometimes, the lesser-known option is a better fit for your needs. And always, always, always measure performance! Don’t just assume that one editor is faster than another. Get your hands dirty and see for yourself.
