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but that doesn't mean that they couldn't muddle through with an editor + command line tools if required. Anecdotal evidence is not a proof, but my empirical

by srean 15y ago

but that doesn't mean that they couldn't muddle through with an editor + command line tools if required. Anecdotal evidence is not a proof, but my empirical observation suggests otherwise. There is, unfortunately, an un-ignorable set of IDE users who cannot be bothered into reading documentation about the language (and I am not talking about support tools manuals). They feel entitled that the IDE should take care of those "details". For this crowd, IDE becomes a necessity and my claim is that its an accidental or an artificial necessity. Not having an IDE may slow you down but it should not stop you, and that is exactly what I have seen time and again. I am fine with them using any of their preferred tools but they should have some idea of whats going on underneath, hence my two use cases for an IDE. If you know what you are doing, by all means use an IDE.

jiggy2011 15y ago
If someone has a pathological aversion to documentation then relying on an IDE may be more of a symptom. However quality of documentation for programming tools/languages varies so much that I can understand where this may come from if you have mainly been exposed to the bad kind. Plus sometimes it is nice to have a bit of "magic" to do some of the work for you when you have something you need done on a deadline and don't have time to grok the details of everything. It can be useful to go back and try and grok some of the details later but you won't usually grasp this until you experience the pain of working with an incomplete understanding first hand. I have also met programmers who are almost the complete opposite of IDE addicts. Usually people who come from a PHP/Javascript background and have become used to doing everything using EditPad and debugging with echo statements. It's often just as difficult to make these people realise that they could save time and gain more power by looking into more sophisticated tools whether they are parts of an IDE or command line tools.

by srean 15y ago

jiggy2011 15y ago

If someone has a pathological aversion to documentation then relying on an IDE may be more of a symptom. However quality of documentation for programming tools/languages varies so much that I can understand where this may come from if you have mainly been exposed to the bad kind. Plus sometimes it is nice to have a bit of "magic" to do some of the work for you when you have something you need done on a deadline and don't have time to grok the details of everything. It can be useful to go back and try and grok some of the details later but you won't usually grasp this until you experience the pain of working with an incomplete understanding first hand. I have also met programmers who are almost the complete opposite of IDE addicts. Usually people who come from a PHP/Javascript background and have become used to doing everything using EditPad and debugging with echo statements. It's often just as difficult to make these people realise that they could save time and gain more power by looking into more sophisticated tools whether they are parts of an IDE or command line tools.