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On the other hand, not knowing and not using the tools for your language is also a problem, assuming that such tools are improving productivity (which many of t

On the other hand, not knowing and not using the tools for your language is also a problem, assuming that such tools are improving productivity (which many of them do). You should be able to get by without them if necessary, but you should also strive to use the most powerful tools you can whenever possible. Powerful tools also have non-trivial learning curves, so you should train to become proficient with them too. Being tied to a single effective tool is not always bad. If the tool is indeed powerful, the need for other tools may not arise. Emacs and Vim users use their editors to work on a lot of different things, for example, and have enormous libraries of plugins and features at their disposal, ready to use no matter the language. If someone asked me whether to learn an IDE for a specific language or Emacs, I'd say both. The larger your selection of tools, the better - with more tools the number of things you can do faster/better also increases, which leads to higher productivity. In other words - don't try to code in Notepad forever and be prepared to spend some time on learning new tools.

indemnity 9y ago
Arguably, using Xcode for Swift is akin to coding in Notepad. I basically have to have the documentation open in a separate window at all times, because Command-Click hardly works, and syntax highlighting/completion is never long for this world. At least Notepad doesn't have pretensions to being a programmer tool.
alexasmyths 9y ago
"On the other hand, not knowing and not using the tools for your language is also a problem," To be fair - XCode is a problem. iPhone Apps are not rocket science. There is no reason for the massive bureaucracy and confusion of XCode - or even Swift. Not only does Swift try to do too much as a language - dealing with XCode is like dealing with the California DMV. My god, man the compiler options. Pages and pages of options. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest failure of the 'Swift' decision, was to be so tied to the old language standard, and to XCode. The only possible advantage of XCode from a developer perspective is maybe the UI designer, but even then. Obviously there's a huge investment in Xcode But ... Has anyone tried VSCode lately, or Atom? I mean it's possibly to have a 'light' editor and basic compile chain in which we can do powerful things. Or none at all. I personally loathe using Android Studio or XCode - it feels like working for the government, on a team of 3000 people building a web-site for the local library that never gets into production. Anyhow, I jest. I think there is rationality in wanting to be able to have a language work without an IDE.

indemnity 9y ago

Arguably, using Xcode for Swift is akin to coding in Notepad. I basically have to have the documentation open in a separate window at all times, because Command-Click hardly works, and syntax highlighting/completion is never long for this world. At least Notepad doesn't have pretensions to being a programmer tool.

alexasmyths 9y ago

"On the other hand, not knowing and not using the tools for your language is also a problem," To be fair - XCode is a problem. iPhone Apps are not rocket science. There is no reason for the massive bureaucracy and confusion of XCode - or even Swift. Not only does Swift try to do too much as a language - dealing with XCode is like dealing with the California DMV. My god, man the compiler options. Pages and pages of options. As far as I'm concerned, the biggest failure of the 'Swift' decision, was to be so tied to the old language standard, and to XCode. The only possible advantage of XCode from a developer perspective is maybe the UI designer, but even then. Obviously there's a huge investment in Xcode But ... Has anyone tried VSCode lately, or Atom? I mean it's possibly to have a 'light' editor and basic compile chain in which we can do powerful things. Or none at all. I personally loathe using Android Studio or XCode - it feels like working for the government, on a team of 3000 people building a web-site for the local library that never gets into production. Anyhow, I jest. I think there is rationality in wanting to be able to have a language work without an IDE.