grumpy

I agree with Arevos; deliberate laziness (in the sense of doing what you have to, but not also doing things you don't have to) is a good thing. But, then again, I have training as a mathematician. While non-mathematicians think mathematical symbols are used so mathematicians feel superior, the truth is that they are easier to write. For example, an upper case sigma (a quick squiggle) means "the sum of". Now imagine you have to write "the sum of" over an over again --- which would you prefer to do?

That aside, an IDE is a tool. A text editor is another tool. There is nothing inherently wrong with using either to edit your source files. Personally, I have used the "vi/gcc" combination in some settings (to edit source files, build scripts, makefiles, etc etc), and IDE's in others.

IDE's make it easier to do some things (eg step through with a debugger) but come at a cost (need for a more grunty development machine, more difficult to resolve problems that occur on a production machine if it is not possible - for technical or political reasons - to install an IDE on that machine).

One of the major trade-offs with IDEs is that they are usually an assembly of other programs, and the glue between them. Essentially you are constrained to what the developer of the IDE thinks most people do. If need want to step outside what the IDE lets you do easily (eg get down and dirty with code it generates for you) then it tends to be much more difficult to use an IDE.

There is also a half-way point. Some programmers editors are not formally IDE's, but are text editors with features designed to manage compilation and linkage phases. In practice, such programs can deliver the best (and worst) of both ends of the spectrum.

melbolt

in the real world productivity > nerd points.

besides, if you can code the back end to a piece of software, its obvious that you would be able to figure out how to do a GUI programmitcally if you really wanted to.

who do you think is going to get ahead, your coworker who finishes his tasks a week earlier than you or you who says "hey look, i did this in notepad, it looks exactly like my coworker's piece, except i did it in notepad"?

in my opinion, skill is determined on the back end code anyways, anyone can do a GUI using pre-built controls and come out with the same or similar results. its the algorithms and problem solving that impresses people and separates the men from the boys in terms of code efficiency, readability, etc.

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Indigno

Greating more unnecessary work for youself is never a good thing.

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Jessehk

I think IDE's in general are a good thing. When I start getting bad feelings about them is when I see programming books that write things like: "to run your program, click run in Visual Studio.NET".

I think it's only a good idea to use tools in order to increase your efficiency if you also know how to do things the hard way.

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bl00dninja

yeah i could walk three miles to work instead of driving.

i could eat without a fork, spoon, or knife.

i could wipe my ass with my hand instead of using toilet paper.

but...i'm not a fucking retard.

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Mjordan2nd

Rofl. BN's reply made me literally laugh out loud.

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Baphomet

When you are getting paid to do a job you need to do it fast. If you know how to do it both ways, then it doesn't make a difference. Not using an IDE is just tedious. You don't gain anything.

snipertomcat

I think that in today's world of deadlines and cutoff's, an IDE is an important tool to a programmer. Less tedious bullshit equals less development time and greater productivity. Come to think of it...IDE's are actually fun to work with as opposed to just key clacking around in a text editor (of course thats a matter of personal opinion).

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Arevos

However, the quality of a standalone text editor may be greater than that of a builtin text editor in an IDE. No <esc>4dd, for instance.

DaWei

If that still means "delete 4 lines, beginning at the current line", I would do it this way in my IDE:

Mouse: block 4 lines, hit delete key (or right-click, click 'delete').

Keyboard: hold shift, hit down arrow four times, hit delete.

One wouldn't want to use the latter for umpteen lines. On the other hand, one has a visual cue as to which lines are selected, obviating the necessity of counting.

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Contributor's Corner: Grumpy on C++ Exceptions DaWei on Pointers