4 ms·

Even just typing can be slower in an IDE as it looks for ways to complete the code for you. Compiling in the background and code analysis takes a toll too. I al

by jm4 18y ago

Even just typing can be slower in an IDE as it looks for ways to complete the code for you. Compiling in the background and code analysis takes a toll too. I also find the little completion popups distracting at times. Same thing with code folding. I guess it's just a personal preference. I know all those things can be adjusted or turned off, but at that point I might as well use just use the best text editor available. When I'm using Java I consider an IDE almost necessary and I use IntelliJ, but for pretty much everything else I prefer Emacs or EditPadPro. Developing with a text editor is definitely slower at first as you commit things to memory that an IDE may take care of, but in the long run I think it pays off since you're not bound to a particular tool. I've seen enough developers that can do next to nothing without an IDE. I don't want to be one of them.

Tichy 18y ago
Hm, I never had speed issues with Eclipse. I tried Netbeans recently because it supposedly has good Rails integration. For some reason I found it unusable - now that you mention it, I think Netbeans was indeed going a bit overboard with helpers, background compilation and stuff. But as I said, I never felt such pains with Eclipse. Working on a 1,2GhZ mobile CPU, so not the fastest computer, either. So what you mention can indeed be an issue, but hardly a reason to dismiss IDEs in general.
- jm4 18y ago
  Don't get me wrong- this isn't a blanket dismissal of IDEs. I was just responding to someone who was amazed that there are still people that write code in text editors. I believe in using the right tool for the job and there are cases that call for a text editor as well as cases that call for an IDE. I actually happen to use an IDE on a Java project every day at work. I think Java can be a difficult language to work with otherwise. It's verbose so you end up with an enormous amount of code and there's a very slow feedback cycle. These are areas where an IDE can really help. I rarely find myself wanting an IDE when I'm coding in Perl, Python, Javascript or pretty much everything else I use. Then again, maybe it's because I haven't seen an IDE with much to offer other than code completion when working with these languages. I have almost zero need or want for code completion. For me, some of the best an IDE has to offer is the ability to find things quickly and refactoring. Many of them don't do a particularly good job at this with languages other than Java.
  - Tichy 18y ago
    True, not much on offer as IDEs for other languages. At least Eclipse gives a code outline for JavaScript, though.

by jm4 18y ago

Tichy 18y ago

Hm, I never had speed issues with Eclipse. I tried Netbeans recently because it supposedly has good Rails integration. For some reason I found it unusable - now that you mention it, I think Netbeans was indeed going a bit overboard with helpers, background compilation and stuff. But as I said, I never felt such pains with Eclipse. Working on a 1,2GhZ mobile CPU, so not the fastest computer, either. So what you mention can indeed be an issue, but hardly a reason to dismiss IDEs in general.

jm4 18y ago
Don't get me wrong- this isn't a blanket dismissal of IDEs. I was just responding to someone who was amazed that there are still people that write code in text editors. I believe in using the right tool for the job and there are cases that call for a text editor as well as cases that call for an IDE. I actually happen to use an IDE on a Java project every day at work. I think Java can be a difficult language to work with otherwise. It's verbose so you end up with an enormous amount of code and there's a very slow feedback cycle. These are areas where an IDE can really help. I rarely find myself wanting an IDE when I'm coding in Perl, Python, Javascript or pretty much everything else I use. Then again, maybe it's because I haven't seen an IDE with much to offer other than code completion when working with these languages. I have almost zero need or want for code completion. For me, some of the best an IDE has to offer is the ability to find things quickly and refactoring. Many of them don't do a particularly good job at this with languages other than Java.
- Tichy 18y ago
  True, not much on offer as IDEs for other languages. At least Eclipse gives a code outline for JavaScript, though.