TBH i was thinking more in the lines of having the text editor associate source code lines with C functions and declarations so that the IDE can recompile only

TBH i was thinking more in the lines of having the text editor associate source code lines with C functions and declarations so that the IDE can recompile only the bits changed while working in the code (something like a more advanced edit-and-continue). But yeah, i do not see much effort going on in improving these areas. I think people are just used to "patchwork IDEs" and find them good enough.