While I generally use sed sparingly because of testability issues, I agree with the general point. The UNIX console tools are extremely powerful for text proce

While I generally use sed sparingly because of testability issues, I agree with the general point. The UNIX console tools are extremely powerful for text processing and graphical IDE's don't even come close. I have never found a graphical IDE that could match even VIM in text processing. Sure maybe it adds a file browser or a couple of menu commands for building and running. But in terms of actual coding, VIM rules (I am sure EMACS fans feel the same way about EMACS and for similar reasons). The selling point of an IDE is generally that it's "integrated" whatever that means. The selling point of UNIX or Linux is you can string the tools together, loosely integrated, to accomplish a better job, but it's not integrated in the same way out of the box. I don't think there is any question that the UNIX approach leads to better productivity in my mind. The issue is that like all high productivity tools, it has a learning curve.