Re:Ask HN: Why do you still use Emacs/Vim?
by beatgammit on Wednesday November 21, 2018 @01:22AM
(#18500562)
I've never found the fancy features in IDEs to be worth it. Compared to vim/emacs, they're:
- slow
- visually distracting
- lightweight in text manipulation
- built around seldom use features
I rarely need a debugger or type information, yet the entire interface bends over backwards to include those features. In fact, I feel that IDEs encourage more complicated code structure because it makes dealing with them reasonable.
The only time I use an IDE is when:
- the build process is too complicated (mobile, .NET or Java, game engines)
- I'm unfamiliar with the platform
- everyone else is using it, so I'd have to maintain the CLI build process myself
- I need a fancy debugger
That being said, I've only fired up an IDE a couple times in the last year or so, so vim has been more than capable at solving my problems.
- slow - visually distracting - lightweight in text manipulation - built around seldom use features
I rarely need a debugger or type information, yet the entire interface bends over backwards to include those features. In fact, I feel that IDEs encourage more complicated code structure because it makes dealing with them reasonable.
The only time I use an IDE is when:
- the build process is too complicated (mobile, .NET or Java, game engines) - I'm unfamiliar with the platform - everyone else is using it, so I'd have to maintain the CLI build process myself - I need a fancy debugger
That being said, I've only fired up an IDE a couple times in the last year or so, so vim has been more than capable at solving my problems.