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When people love an IDE product so much that they can't work without it, they have overspecialised to their detriment. And possibly to the detriment of the code

When people love an IDE product so much that they can't work without it, they have overspecialised to their detriment. And possibly to the detriment of the code itself. > As for terminal IDEs The GNU/Linux terminal is the killer app. Multiple terminals in a tiling window manager is peak productivity for me. (Browser in a separate virtual workspace.) And modern scaling for a big display is unbeatable for developer ergonomics.

EbEsacAig 1y ago
> When people love an IDE product so much that they can't work without it, they have overspecialised to their detriment. I think you are wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory Being extremely good at something increases the gap between said something and everything else. That doesn't mean being extremely good at the first thing is "over-specialization to detriment". If someone is equally mediocre at everything, they have no such gap, so no "over-specialization to detriment"; but is that really worth desiring? I think not.
- mxkopy 1y ago
  What if the IDE is a LeapFrog 2-in-1 Educational Laptop
  - johnebgd 1y ago
    If you make usable products that solve problems for others from that then it’s a great IDE…
- jancsika 1y ago
  > Being extremely good at something increases the gap between said something and everything else. You're also potentially over-specializing at one level while at the same time neglecting other levels. Musicians run into this problem when, for example, they rely solely on muscle memory to make it through a performance. Throw enough stress and complicated music at them and they quickly buckle. Meanwhile, a more seasoned performer remembers the exact fingers they used when drilling the measure after their mistake, what pitch is in the bass, what chord they are playing, what inversion that chord is in, the context of that chord in the greater harmonic progression, what section of the piece that harmonic progression is in, and so forth. A friend of mine was able to improvise a different chord progression after a small mistake. He could do this because he knew where he was in the piece/section/chord progression and where he needed to go in the next measure. In short, I'm fairly certain OP is talking about these levels of comprehension in computer programming. It's fine if someone is immensely comfortable in one IDE and grumpy in another. But it's not so fine if changing a shortcut reveals that they don't understand what a header file is.
rpodraza 1y ago
Good luck writing Java with notepad.
- anthk 1y ago
  Tons of people did that but with nvi/vim and calling javac by hand.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  We did that back in 1996, however the sentiment applies to most languages. Example Notepad versus Turbo C++ described on the article.
- int_19h 1y ago
  Was literally a thing in some colleges.
wat10000 1y ago
Why is it to their detriment? It's not like they're stuck with it forever. "Can't work without it" is really "won't work without it because they prefer installing it over going without."
pjmlp 1y ago
As someone that started when only rich people could afford GUIs, I don't understand what is killer app about it. We used text terminals because that is what we could afford, and I gladly only start a terminal window when I have to.
- eikenberry 1y ago
  The killer thing about it is that it is a gateway to the shell, all the command line tooling and the best cross-platform UI.
  - pjmlp 1y ago
    Xerox PARC, Atari, Amiga and many others had shells, without needing to live on a teletype world. It is only cross platform as long as it pretends to be a VT100.
    - eikenberry 1y ago
      It's not about needing to live in a teletype world, it is about how language/text is just a better interface for a general use computer. Computers primary feature is that they are programmable and an interface that allows you to take advantage of that is superior to one that doesn't. The programmable GUIs all failed to gain traction (smalltalk and like), that left the shell (and maybe spreadsheets) as the best UI for this. Though as AIs mature we might see a shift here as they could provide a programmable interface that could rival shell scripting.
      - int_19h 1y ago
        The reason why GUIs became so popular so quickly after they were introduced is because text is not "just a better interface for a general use computer". Like OP, I remember the days when command line was all you had, and even then we used stuff like TUI file managers to mitigate the pain of it.
        1y ago

EbEsacAig 1y ago

> When people love an IDE product so much that they can't work without it, they have overspecialised to their detriment. I think you are wrong. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory Being extremely good at something increases the gap between said something and everything else. That doesn't mean being extremely good at the first thing is "over-specialization to detriment". If someone is equally mediocre at everything, they have no such gap, so no "over-specialization to detriment"; but is that really worth desiring? I think not.

mxkopy 1y ago
What if the IDE is a LeapFrog 2-in-1 Educational Laptop
- johnebgd 1y ago
  If you make usable products that solve problems for others from that then it’s a great IDE…
jancsika 1y ago
> Being extremely good at something increases the gap between said something and everything else. You're also potentially over-specializing at one level while at the same time neglecting other levels. Musicians run into this problem when, for example, they rely solely on muscle memory to make it through a performance. Throw enough stress and complicated music at them and they quickly buckle. Meanwhile, a more seasoned performer remembers the exact fingers they used when drilling the measure after their mistake, what pitch is in the bass, what chord they are playing, what inversion that chord is in, the context of that chord in the greater harmonic progression, what section of the piece that harmonic progression is in, and so forth. A friend of mine was able to improvise a different chord progression after a small mistake. He could do this because he knew where he was in the piece/section/chord progression and where he needed to go in the next measure. In short, I'm fairly certain OP is talking about these levels of comprehension in computer programming. It's fine if someone is immensely comfortable in one IDE and grumpy in another. But it's not so fine if changing a shortcut reveals that they don't understand what a header file is.

rpodraza 1y ago

Good luck writing Java with notepad.

anthk 1y ago
Tons of people did that but with nvi/vim and calling javac by hand.
pjmlp 1y ago
We did that back in 1996, however the sentiment applies to most languages. Example Notepad versus Turbo C++ described on the article.
int_19h 1y ago
Was literally a thing in some colleges.

wat10000 1y ago

Why is it to their detriment? It's not like they're stuck with it forever. "Can't work without it" is really "won't work without it because they prefer installing it over going without."

pjmlp 1y ago

As someone that started when only rich people could afford GUIs, I don't understand what is killer app about it. We used text terminals because that is what we could afford, and I gladly only start a terminal window when I have to.

eikenberry 1y ago
The killer thing about it is that it is a gateway to the shell, all the command line tooling and the best cross-platform UI.
- pjmlp 1y ago
  Xerox PARC, Atari, Amiga and many others had shells, without needing to live on a teletype world. It is only cross platform as long as it pretends to be a VT100.
  - eikenberry 1y ago
    It's not about needing to live in a teletype world, it is about how language/text is just a better interface for a general use computer. Computers primary feature is that they are programmable and an interface that allows you to take advantage of that is superior to one that doesn't. The programmable GUIs all failed to gain traction (smalltalk and like), that left the shell (and maybe spreadsheets) as the best UI for this. Though as AIs mature we might see a shift here as they could provide a programmable interface that could rival shell scripting.
    - int_19h 1y ago
      The reason why GUIs became so popular so quickly after they were introduced is because text is not "just a better interface for a general use computer". Like OP, I remember the days when command line was all you had, and even then we used stuff like TUI file managers to mitigate the pain of it.
      - 1y ago