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I like Acme because it is built to facilitate using shell commands from within the editor. You can write scripts in any language you like and run them, which in

I like Acme because it is built to facilitate using shell commands from within the editor. You can write scripts in any language you like and run them, which in some ways makes it the ultimate scriptable editor. However, an IDE like IntelliJ brings so much to the table that it's hard to imagine working without it. I know I'm much more productive using it than Emacs or Acme or Vi or any other editor that integrates well with Unix.

coliveira 8y ago
IntelliJ only seems fantastic because it is so tightly integrated with the language you want to use. That's why the company has to release a separate product for each major language they support. Considering this, IntelliJ cannot be considered as being in the same league as a general text editor such as vi or emacs, it is instead a special-purpose Java source editor.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  That is called market segmentation, a well known business technique. You can use InteliJ enterprise and all the plugins. Eclipse, Visual Studio, Netbeans, XCode, Android Studio and many other IDEs of yore always supported multiple languages.
tambourine_man 8y ago
One thing that annoyed me the last time I tried it (webstorm variation if I’m not mistaken) is that you can’t use it as an editor only. You have to create a project. For everything. And of course, multi-second launch time is unacceptable for an editor in my book. It’s just too frustrating. But yeah, autocompletion is amazing. It even understands image dimensions. And it understands PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS, all mixed toguether in the same file, respecting indentation and syntax highlighting like nothing I’ve ever seen.
- bigpeopleareold 8y ago
  This is the type of tradeoff I have with Emacs vs. an IDE. Certain IDE-like features are good enough for Emacs; it was better with IDEs. However, IDEs were designed for specific purposes. Having the flexibility of the same text editor at the same time is probably more important than possibly faster autocompletion.
- pfranz 8y ago
  I can't find the source, but I remember hearing a quote similar to, "What separates a text editor from an IDE is that you have create a project to save a file." I feel the same way as you. I spent a good amount of time with PyCharm, WebStorm, and RubyMine.

coliveira 8y ago

IntelliJ only seems fantastic because it is so tightly integrated with the language you want to use. That's why the company has to release a separate product for each major language they support. Considering this, IntelliJ cannot be considered as being in the same league as a general text editor such as vi or emacs, it is instead a special-purpose Java source editor.

pjmlp 8y ago
That is called market segmentation, a well known business technique. You can use InteliJ enterprise and all the plugins. Eclipse, Visual Studio, Netbeans, XCode, Android Studio and many other IDEs of yore always supported multiple languages.

tambourine_man 8y ago

One thing that annoyed me the last time I tried it (webstorm variation if I’m not mistaken) is that you can’t use it as an editor only. You have to create a project. For everything. And of course, multi-second launch time is unacceptable for an editor in my book. It’s just too frustrating. But yeah, autocompletion is amazing. It even understands image dimensions. And it understands PHP, JavaScript, HTML and CSS, all mixed toguether in the same file, respecting indentation and syntax highlighting like nothing I’ve ever seen.

bigpeopleareold 8y ago
This is the type of tradeoff I have with Emacs vs. an IDE. Certain IDE-like features are good enough for Emacs; it was better with IDEs. However, IDEs were designed for specific purposes. Having the flexibility of the same text editor at the same time is probably more important than possibly faster autocompletion.
pfranz 8y ago
I can't find the source, but I remember hearing a quote similar to, "What separates a text editor from an IDE is that you have create a project to save a file." I feel the same way as you. I spent a good amount of time with PyCharm, WebStorm, and RubyMine.