I have a (possibly) more interesting way to approach this divide: ask yourself how many IDEs (and I mean true out-of-the-box IDEs, not a tweaked Emacs or VIM se

I have a (possibly) more interesting way to approach this divide: ask yourself how many IDEs (and I mean true out-of-the-box IDEs, not a tweaked Emacs or VIM setup) from over ten years ago are still in heavy, widespread use. Now ask yourself how many languages from over ten years ago are still in heavy, widespread use. Language designers: please don't design for today's flash-in-the-pan IDEs that no one will care about in ten years; design a language to last a lifetime (or more!), and the IDEs will follow. Bonus in that your language won't be locked to some IDE no one will care about in ten years. Also, wasting your time and focus on making an IDE for your language will take away from your time and focus to make your language better, or you may make compromises in the language for the sake of the IDE. (and yes, in case you couldn't tell, I'm an Emacs user ;)