The power of the command line and editors like vim and Emacs is only apparent after spending a lot of time with them. It also requires a methodical use of docum

The power of the command line and editors like vim and Emacs is only apparent after spending a lot of time with them. It also requires a methodical use of documentation. C programming in vim might seem masochistic compared to Visual Studio. I'd suggest that Emacs offers a richer set of features when building software in C, complete with autocompletion, SCM integration, and build commands. You can also use Emacs (or just GNU Screen) to have split views of source code and program output and the debugger (gdb) in one window. The real advantage of the command line environment is the ability to create new tools. When you're in Visual Studio or Eclipse it's a much more formal and involved process to create a custom command or automate something and integrate it with your workflow. With the CLI you can just throw together the tool you have in mind in whatever language is most suitable, and integration is not an issue because the shell (hosted in Emacs or not) is an integral part of your "IDE" at this point. Compared to tools like Visual Studio and Eclipse, the trek is longer but the peak is higher with Emacs and the CLI.