Making good programmers feel like bad programmers

Re:Making good programmers feel like bad programmers by nostrademons on Monday July 27, 2009 @01:13AM (#725412)

I grew up with Java + IDEs and now work primarily with C++ + vim, and my experience is the opposite. I feel that I'm much more productive with an IDE, as long as the computer is fast enough to support it (not always a given; Eclipse/Netbeans/IntelliJ are pigs). I waste far more time switching between vim and xterm to run builds than I did hitting F5 in Netbeans. And I just didn't make syntax errors in Java, because the IDE would instantly flag it when I did and I'd fix it immediately, while they still happen occasionally in C++. I also spend far more time switching between Code Search windows than I did when I had type-aware autocompletion.

I suspect it's more that you'll be most productive in whichever environment you know best. I spent 3 years in Java IDEs; I've spent 2 years doing JavaScript/Python/C++ dev in vim. Given another year, they may reach parity.

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Re:Making good programmers feel like bad programmers by jacquesm on Monday July 27, 2009 @04:15AM (#725579)

You mean you were making syntax errors all the time :)

The IDE fixing it for you made the price of not knowing the syntax of the language you are using small enough for you to not bother learning the language properly.

Once you really grok a language syntax errors are mostly gone, that's for the learning phase not when you start writing serious sized blocks of code. Sure, everybody forgets a quote or a comma every now and then, especially when switching languages. But in a compiled environment without an IDE the cost of a syntax error (one more ect cycle) is too expensive to go through so you really spend time learning the language.

The "I suspect it's more that you'll be most productive in whichever environment you know best." is very true, but once you know then equally well I wonder which will win out.

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