When comparing SourceLair vs Microsoft's Visual Studio, the Slant community recommends SourceLair for most people. In the question“What are the best JavaScript IDEs or editors?” SourceLair is ranked 16th while Microsoft's Visual Studio is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose SourceLair is:
SourceLair provides a minimal Django stack which can be used to host projects and see development results right away. Plus, there's a public link that can be used to share with colleagues or team.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Django stack, out of the box
SourceLair provides a minimal Django stack which can be used to host projects and see development results right away. Plus, there's a public link that can be used to share with colleagues or team.
Pro Simple and efficient interface
SourceLair features a very efficient interface, containing only the tools needed, thus providing focus on what's important - code.
Pro GitHub integration
SourceLair lets you log in and sign up with your GitHub account. This enables you to clone your GitHub repos with a single click and start working immediately on them.
Pro Git & Mercurial support
Every software project on sourceLair is backed up by the Source Control Manager of your choice; Git or Mercurial. Clone repos, commit, pull and push changes and work with branches on the cloud without having to install and configure anything or worry about compatibility between your Source Control Manager and the system of your choice.
Pro PHP real-time preview
You can split you editor and watch the result of your code in real time.
Pro Javascript Intellisense support
Javascript Intellisense allows Visual Studio to provide you with useful hints and auto-completion features while you code.
Pro Clean UI
Visual Studio has a clean, intuitive user interface.
Pro Cloud storage
Your Visual Studio online account gives you a place to store your code, backlog, and other project data with no servers to deploy, configure, or manage.
Pro Product backlog
In agile development teams, one really needs features such as product backlogs where you can assign features to teammates and track their progress on them. VS provides a web-based interface for you to track your team's complete progress on the project.
Pro Very good XML/XSD support
Syntax highlighting, Intellisense, and jump to declaration all work in XML documents.
Cons
Con Expensive
SourceLair offers a free plan that allows you one private project. However if you want more projects, the Pro plan is fairly expensive at $8/month ($96/year).
Con Non free/libre (proprietary)
Con Tons of feature bloat
If you're doing simple web frontend dev, then VS is far too arcane and feature bloated for most of your work.
Con Not cross-platform
Visual Studio is only available on Windows, which causes platform lock-in.
Con Slow
Visual Studio can be quite laggy.
Con Takes up a lot of space
Visual Studio can use about 6 GBs which a lot of space to be taken from your computer.
Con Terribly slow development
Keep dreaming about features already provided by alternative products.
Con Non-native window frame
The IDE main window lacks a standard window frame (titlebar/borders). A custom solution is used where the custom titlebar contains numerous application-specific controls. This results in inconsistent UX and can also be problematic when you're using shell replacements or other various window-management software (such as bbLean).