Selecting an IDE for Data Science

Introduction

This post provides a quick comparison of RStudio, Vim and Visual Studio Code for Data Science. After experimenting in parallel these three editors I decided to stick with RStudio for my Data Science work. In summary RStudio is pure open source and competes very well with Visual Studio Code in functionality. Vim seemed to bring ergonomy and speed but the cost of configuration and learning is not paying off in my view. A key point on the comparison was to confirm that RStudio provides the possibility to minimize the use of the gui thus making the benefit of Vim minimal. The keyboard list also presented here strongly influenced our assessment and encouraged to continue the road to “keyboard only” even without Vim.

IDEs assessment

RStudio
Advantages
* Excellent python-R integration
* Minimal IDE configuration required for Data Science
* Widely used among the R community
* All Vim keyboard shortcuts have an equivalent in RStudio default (see list below)
* Many of the benefits provided by Vim can also be provided by RStudio defaults, it’s a matter of searching for them (e.g. using more the keyboard and less the gui)
* Good potential for becoming a standard with Posit growing
* Is and will remain pure open source
Drawbacks
* no critical drawbacks

Vim
Advantages
* Speed
Drawbacks
* Many benefits provide by RStudio are not easily available on Vim (e.g. require plug-ins, extensive configuration and learning config details)
* Vim brings an additional domain to learn with significant redundancy, mostly with different ways to do the same things just for the sake of being faster

Visual Studio Code
Advantages
* Extremely broad, complete and extensible
* Good packages for Data Science
* Good python and R integration
* Runs Jupyter notebooks
Drawbacks
* Although open source it is backed by Microsoft

Shortcuts comparison

Vim main selling point is the speed provided by a keyboard only approach. There are endless combinations of keystrokes to never have to leave the keyboard. The proposal may seem logic but there are two challenges: is typing the bottleneck? is it worth to learn a second system as myself and I assume many people are already familiar with some system. Or if not the common question of which standard to adopt applies. Personally I’m quite convinced for the direction of keyboard only not for the speed but for the argument of removing layers from brain to machine just as in a musical instrument or a tennis racket we’re not thinking anymore as the years of practice make the instrument more and more the prolonging of the brain.

The list below has been used primarily to confirm that most Vim shortcuts have an equivalent in RStudio. RStudio key shortcuts accessible with Alt + Shift + k. In a separate article I’ll be providing a simple sheet cheat of the keyboard shortcuts that I’ve started with and that I recommend.

Move

RStudio	Vim	Action
Left	h	Left
Right	l	Right
Up	k	Up
Down	j	Down
home	0	Start of line
End	$	End of line
Ctrl + Left	b	Word backward
Ctrl + Right 2x	w	Word forward
Ctrl + Right 4x	2w	Move 2 words
Ctrl + Right	e	End of word
Ctrl End	G	Last line

File

RStudio	Vim	Action
	:q	Exit
	:q!	Exit discard changes
Ctrl+s	:w	Write
Ctrl+w	:wq	Write quit
Ctrl+o		Open

Delete

RStudio	Vim	Action
Del	x	Delete under the cursor
Ctrl + Del	dw	Delete word
Ctrl + Backspace 4x	d2w	Delete 2 words
Shift + End, Del	d$	Delete to End of line
Home, Shift + End, Del	dd	Delete whole line
Home, Shift + Down, Del	2dd	Delete two lines

Edit

RStudio	Vim	Action
Just type	i	Insert text
End	A	Append text
Enter	o	Insert in next line
Up	O	Insert in previous line
Home, Shift + End, Ctrl + c	yy	Yank (copy) a line
Home, Shift + Down, Ctrl + c	n,Nd	Yank lines n to N
Home,Shift+PageDown, Ctrl+c	n,Nd	Yank lines n to N
Ctrl+z	u	Undo
	U	Undo all current line
Ctrl+Shift+z	Ctrl+R	Redo
	10J	Join 10 lines

Terminal

RStudio	Vim	Action
	:close	Close window
	Ctrl+W	Switch window
Ctrl + 1		Focus on Source
Ctrl + 2		Focus on Console
Shift + Alt + M	:term	Focus on Terminal
	:term python3	open python terminal

Help

RStudio	Vim	Action
Alt + Shift + k		Keyboard shortcuts

Config

RStudio	Vim	Action
	:set number	Line numbers on
	:set nonumber	Line numbers off
	:syntax on	Syntax highlight on
	:syntax off	Syntax off

Modes

RStudio	Vim	Action
	v	Start visual mode

Vim syntax

syntax: operator [number] motion
operation: Delete two words
command: d2w