I use IntelliJ for certain tasks because I don't know Java as well as I should. It certainly makes me more effective as a guy who doesn't know Java very well!

I use IntelliJ for certain tasks because I don't know Java as well as I should. It certainly makes me more effective as a guy who doesn't know Java very well! I traditionally used vi for C coding (mostly for embedded systems in parallel with assembly, and then later on Vaxxen, and then Sun machines, and later Linux and embedded systems again). Part of the effect was "time-in-tool", but I certainly know C a lot better than I will every know Java. I guess I would posit that I find the IDE invaluable to get up-and-going with a new language (and complex ecosystem of packages), I find out that I plateau out (learning-wise) at a lower level. IF Java didn't have so much boiler-plate (esp. on Android), I'd probably have tossed it by now. But it does, so I haven't. I'm probably getting old and lazy and accepting my degraded knowledge set as a necessary cost...