5 ms·

One of the questions I ask candidates is what text editor they prefer. I don't particularly care what they use, but I do care about whether _they_ care. I think

by niccl 4y ago

One of the questions I ask candidates is what text editor they prefer. I don't particularly care what they use, but I do care about whether _they_ care. I think it touches on the passion thing: do they care enough about what they do to invest time and effort into looking at the best tool that suits them...

falcolas 4y ago
Eh. My favorite editor is Vim. But right now I'm writing code in Java. Guess which editor I'm not using much lately? No matter how awesome your particular hammer is, it should be set aside when you're working with screws.
- mooreds 4y ago
  Never fear! You can still use vim keybindings (probably) :) .
  - arinlen 4y ago
    > Never fear! You can still use vim keybindings (probably) :) . IntelliJ has a good plugin for vim key bindings. Vs code has one, but it's sufferable at best. It's my experience that these IDE plugins are more insufferable the more power user you are. Vim is far more than asdf and :wq. But I digress.
    - boring_twenties 4y ago
      IMNSHO, the IdeaVim plugin is worse than useless. Even the most basic of commands, like '' or u, never do what you expect (i.e, what they should do to be consistent with vi/vim). And the more compelling features, like q:, are simply not implemented. That is before even addressing the more minor quibbles, like the fact that when your search wraps around the end of the file, you don't get anything in the "status bar" indicating that fact. Really, these people should be ashamed of themselves for putting "vim" in the name of this plugin. On the other hand, in a previous life I had tried a paid ($100) non-free plugin for Visual Studio, and it was much much better.
bitwize 4y ago
Yeah, I could wax rhapsodical about my Emacs config and the HUGE productivity boosts I get by using and programming Emacs. But let's be real. I'm likely to get one of two reactions. If the interviewer is 50 or so, or older: "Emacs... people still use that?!" If the interviewer is under 50: "Emacs... what is that?" Either way I'm going to get dinged for clinging to a clunky, obscure editor that's not even from this century. So next time an interviewer asks me what my favorite editor is, I'm going to tell them VSCode, because it has the best tooling and most developers use it.
- nickstinemates 4y ago
  under 50; vim for life but also, emacs is pretty cool but I figure i'd mess around with elisp way more than actual programming
  - ravi-delia 4y ago
    That's the real genius move, avoid config sinkholes by forcing yourself to use vimscript
    - nickstinemates 4y ago
      precisely; i don't even consider using vimscript a possibility.
- matt-attack 4y ago
  I’ve been using Emacs since the early 90s. I recently started developing in TypeScript for a big project. Found out about TIDE and company-mode and it’s been absolutely mind blowing. I now have all (of maybe most?) of the capabilities that my intelij colleagues have but frankly I feel I’m way more efficient. Bringing emacs into the 21st century with this technology is life changing. Still run it in full screen terminal mode. My team can’t comprehend how I can ssh into a box that’s running tmux which had all my shells a full-screen eMacs instance, tons of context, history etc all waiting. I can reboot my laptop and not loose any of that. I can ssh in with tmux and I can instantly pick up where I left off. And from any host. My laptop, work desktop, etc.
ipiz0618 4y ago
I never got asked this question, but I tend to show off my customised settings by not touching the mouse once in a live coding test ;)
deepsun 4y ago
I think even if candidate cares, they'd be afraid that you judge them on the choice. And the safest answer is that they don't care. Would you ask them their favorite programming language, and if they say Perl very passionately? Also, it often depends on the ecosystem.

by niccl 4y ago

falcolas 4y ago

Eh. My favorite editor is Vim. But right now I'm writing code in Java. Guess which editor I'm not using much lately? No matter how awesome your particular hammer is, it should be set aside when you're working with screws.

mooreds 4y ago
Never fear! You can still use vim keybindings (probably) :) .
- arinlen 4y ago
  > Never fear! You can still use vim keybindings (probably) :) . IntelliJ has a good plugin for vim key bindings. Vs code has one, but it's sufferable at best. It's my experience that these IDE plugins are more insufferable the more power user you are. Vim is far more than asdf and :wq. But I digress.
  - boring_twenties 4y ago
    IMNSHO, the IdeaVim plugin is worse than useless. Even the most basic of commands, like '' or u, never do what you expect (i.e, what they should do to be consistent with vi/vim). And the more compelling features, like q:, are simply not implemented. That is before even addressing the more minor quibbles, like the fact that when your search wraps around the end of the file, you don't get anything in the "status bar" indicating that fact. Really, these people should be ashamed of themselves for putting "vim" in the name of this plugin. On the other hand, in a previous life I had tried a paid ($100) non-free plugin for Visual Studio, and it was much much better.

bitwize 4y ago

Yeah, I could wax rhapsodical about my Emacs config and the HUGE productivity boosts I get by using and programming Emacs. But let's be real. I'm likely to get one of two reactions. If the interviewer is 50 or so, or older: "Emacs... people still use that?!" If the interviewer is under 50: "Emacs... what is that?" Either way I'm going to get dinged for clinging to a clunky, obscure editor that's not even from this century. So next time an interviewer asks me what my favorite editor is, I'm going to tell them VSCode, because it has the best tooling and most developers use it.

nickstinemates 4y ago
under 50; vim for life but also, emacs is pretty cool but I figure i'd mess around with elisp way more than actual programming
- ravi-delia 4y ago
  That's the real genius move, avoid config sinkholes by forcing yourself to use vimscript
  - nickstinemates 4y ago
    precisely; i don't even consider using vimscript a possibility.
matt-attack 4y ago
I’ve been using Emacs since the early 90s. I recently started developing in TypeScript for a big project. Found out about TIDE and company-mode and it’s been absolutely mind blowing. I now have all (of maybe most?) of the capabilities that my intelij colleagues have but frankly I feel I’m way more efficient. Bringing emacs into the 21st century with this technology is life changing. Still run it in full screen terminal mode. My team can’t comprehend how I can ssh into a box that’s running tmux which had all my shells a full-screen eMacs instance, tons of context, history etc all waiting. I can reboot my laptop and not loose any of that. I can ssh in with tmux and I can instantly pick up where I left off. And from any host. My laptop, work desktop, etc.

ipiz0618 4y ago

I never got asked this question, but I tend to show off my customised settings by not touching the mouse once in a live coding test ;)

deepsun 4y ago

I think even if candidate cares, they'd be afraid that you judge them on the choice. And the safest answer is that they don't care. Would you ask them their favorite programming language, and if they say Perl very passionately? Also, it often depends on the ecosystem.