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Emacs has some pretty good support for many languages. For languages like Javascript, LaTeX, Python, C/C++, and the Lisps, it's absolutely a solid environment,

Emacs has some pretty good support for many languages. For languages like Javascript, LaTeX, Python, C/C++, and the Lisps, it's absolutely a solid environment, with good integration with the tooling. You can at least expect basic syntax highlighting for every language under the sun, and ectags means you get code navigation for most of them as well. Java support is meh at best, true but Java isn't my main language, and I'd rather not learn another new, inferior text editing environment every time I learn a new language: Emacs is universal, and is sometimes surprisingly well integrated. Flycheck also covers for another common IDE feature. Besides, how much of an IDE do you really need? Besides, does your IDE read email, come with an integrated tetris package, and also contain one of the finest tools for outlining, planning, todo lists, writing and publishing, literate programming in any language ever devised (if it wasn't obvious, yes, I'm talking about org-mode)? No? Well then, I'll stick with emacs for now. :-D

coldtea 10y ago
>Java support is meh at best, true but Java isn't my main language, and I'd rather not learn another new, inferior text editing environment every time I learn a new language Only most of the work we do while programming is not text editing -- we're not courtroom clerks or secretaries -- it's reading code, with a modicum of writing (less than 300-500 lines per day). For this, a "great text editing mode" is almost of no use, compared to great language-related facilities for code navigation, AST-based autocomplete, intelligent refactoring, integrated debugger and build system, etc etc. >Besides, does your IDE read email, come with an integrated tetris package Thankfully, no.
- qwertyuiop924 10y ago
  You know, you're kinda right. Emacs has most of that though. >great language-related facilities for code navigation ectags, Semantic, and various other extensions for various languages >AST-based autocomplete Various autocompleters, including Autocomplete (not AST-based, AFAICT), company mode (which is, I think). >intelligent refactoring CEDET, Semantic Refactor, and various modes for various languages, provide a good bit of this (although it's not up to Java IDE standards). >integrated debugger and build system Check, check, and check. We've got GDB integration, as well as GUD, which can run DBX, SDB, XDB, the perl debugger, PDB, and JDB. integration with make, or any other command-line build tool you want with M-x compile. So yeah, refactoring aside, we're actually pretty well off. And you still don't have org-mode.

coldtea 10y ago

>Java support is meh at best, true but Java isn't my main language, and I'd rather not learn another new, inferior text editing environment every time I learn a new language Only most of the work we do while programming is not text editing -- we're not courtroom clerks or secretaries -- it's reading code, with a modicum of writing (less than 300-500 lines per day). For this, a "great text editing mode" is almost of no use, compared to great language-related facilities for code navigation, AST-based autocomplete, intelligent refactoring, integrated debugger and build system, etc etc. >Besides, does your IDE read email, come with an integrated tetris package Thankfully, no.

qwertyuiop924 10y ago
You know, you're kinda right. Emacs has most of that though. >great language-related facilities for code navigation ectags, Semantic, and various other extensions for various languages >AST-based autocomplete Various autocompleters, including Autocomplete (not AST-based, AFAICT), company mode (which is, I think). >intelligent refactoring CEDET, Semantic Refactor, and various modes for various languages, provide a good bit of this (although it's not up to Java IDE standards). >integrated debugger and build system Check, check, and check. We've got GDB integration, as well as GUD, which can run DBX, SDB, XDB, the perl debugger, PDB, and JDB. integration with make, or any other command-line build tool you want with M-x compile. So yeah, refactoring aside, we're actually pretty well off. And you still don't have org-mode.