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I made a similar switch from VS Code to PHPStorm and had a remarkably similar experience. When I started using a proper IDE, I really began to get comfortable w

I made a similar switch from VS Code to PHPStorm and had a remarkably similar experience. When I started using a proper IDE, I really began to get comfortable with the inner workings of what I was doing–debugging the frameworks I was using, jumping directly into methods and doing fairly broad refractors with their refactoring tools. I’ve found it’s made me a better developer by making that process simpler, while being very good at pushing me into optimizing my code, be it through PHPDoc or simply not being consistent in my implementation. I was surprised, but also, came to realize IDE platforms seem to be stigmatized by many developers in the web industry: they seem too heavy or not useful, but I’d argue it made me 10x more productive once I took the time to use one.

jsmeaton 8y ago
I really do think you (probably) need to use an IDE properly, so you can at least make a conscious choice about what you’re giving up, or use other tools that provide similar capabilities. For example, I know a bunch of people that use print debugging, and don’t “get” visual step debugging. But most of those people haven’t used a proper debugger before. I’m primarily a python dev using vscode. Pycharm debugger (and remote interpreter!) blow away the vscode debugger. But I can use CLI tools (ipdb) nearly as well as any visual debugger. It’s a conscious trade off that I make. Specifically, I prefer the editing experience in vscode over pycharm, but can bridge the gap in other ways. Know your tools. Know the capability of other tools.