Nobody I know uses it. On the other hand, the Whole Tomato refactoring tools are pretty awesome, and most of my cow-orkers have them installed. They make large

Nobody I know uses it. On the other hand, the Whole Tomato refactoring tools are pretty awesome, and most of my cow-orkers have them installed. They make large projects a lot easier to deal with (near instantaneous search across a large project is a wonderful thing). But you don't need them, especially when you're starting out. My basic principle is, when learning a language, doing stuff that isn't involved in learning that language is, well, not learning the language. It's like the aspiring writer who just needs to find the right laptop, the right software, the right printer / coffeeshop / corner of the house . . . it's all excuses and procrastination, just sit down and write.