r/dotnet

I know that this has been asked several times before, but I would like to share my experience and thoughts. I also would like to broaden my perspective by comparing it to Rider and VS to understand if I am missing out. I mainly used VS, but in my experience it’s slow and bulky.

I am a full stack developer and mainly work on backend and some frontend stuff. I just love the fact that I can use one IDE to run and debug both my environments. I have worked with VSCode on fairly large multi project solutions/mono repositories and haven’t experienced any limitations yet.

VSCode does require some setup (extensions, settings/launch files), but I like the customisability nature of VSCode. Haven’t missed anything regarding the ability to refactor, debug with breakpoints and performance.

Who else switched to VSCode from VS or Rider and how is your experience thus far; has anyone noticed any limiting factors?

FYI I don’t do anything with older versions of .NET (usually 8 and beyond), WinForms or WPF.

If you've worked with EF Core long enough, you know the pain. You write a LINQ query, you're not sure what SQL it's actually generating, and your options are:

1. Run the whole thing and dig through logs

2. Slap .ToQueryString() on it on—which doesn't even give you the full picture when you're in split query mode

Both suck when you just want to quickly see what EF Core is doing with your LINQ before you commit to it.

So I built EF QueryLens ().

You hover over any LINQ expression in your editor, and it shows you the generated SQL right there. No database connection, no running the app, no log hunting. It works off your compiled assembly.

It supports VS Code, Rider, and Visual Studio. Plugins share a backend that does the translation, with lightweight IDE plugins on top.

How it works:

• You add a small factory class to your startup project that tells QueryLens which provider and extensions you're using (Projectables, Gridify, split query, whatever)

• Build your solution

• Install the extension

• Hover any LINQ expression → SQL appears

This is a fresh launch, so I'm genuinely looking for feedback—what's missing, what's broken, and what would make this actually useful for your workflow? Fire away.