Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#1

Post by pedalpete » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:21 PM UTC

What are the features of your IDE that you think separate it from the rest? What can you not live with out.

If there are things you don't like about your chosen IDE, what are those?

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#2

Post by adamnemecek » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:43 PM UTC

Smart and fast definition and reference lookups. That's all I really need but it's surprising how many IDEs are broken in this aspect.

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#3

Post by fengor » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:45 PM UTC

* Syntax hilighting (any text editor can have this) * Find Resource by starting to type the filename * Follow function calls * integrated debugger

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#4

Post by benjaminwootton » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:45 PM UTC

I love the combination of Tmux and VI. This is because of the tight integration with the shell and the fact that I can work completely without a mouse.

Alas I am a Java guy and restricted to IntelliJ at work. It's a great IDE but I never feel as 'at home' as I do in the shell.

My favorite and most used refactoring feature in any IDE is Extract Method. It's a simple one, but I use it repeatedly when cleaning up both my own code and legacy code. My code would be much uglier without it.

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#5

Post by adamtaa » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:46 PM UTC

Must have features for me are code completion "intellisense" to borrow a term. Proper and diverse syntax highlighting, Function/Method signature helpers, code/file navigation, and a clearly defined layout of the interface. Additionally, the IDE should have a clearly defined purpose and all utilities and support functions should reflect this. SOme good examples IMO are visual studio, and jetbrains IDEs of which I primarily use webstorm

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#6

Post by nubela » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:53 PM UTC

Code jump. Intellisense. Refactoring is really sweet too, but that I can do with just find/replace (carefully).

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#7

Post by Kronuz » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:54 PM UTC

Syntax highlighting, code completion, jump to definition and code linting, search and replace (regexps) in project... and of course a nice and, most importantly, fast code editor.

So, I use Sublime Text. Although it technically isn't an IDE, with some plugins installed (SublimeCodeIntel, SublimeLinter, and others), it works wonderfully as is if was. And it's blazing fast too.

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#8

Post by jbrooksuk » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:55 PM UTC

I really love Sublime, so here are a few features which stop be from switching to apps such as Chocolat.

- Multiple Cursors, at first you think this is just a gimmick, but it soon shows its usefulness. I use this feature all of the time.

- Jump to definition.

- Useful and intuitive key bindings.

- Console output.

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#9

Post by venomsnake » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:55 PM UTC

Search, Search and Replace in multiple files.

Re: Ask HN: What is the must have feature of your IDE

#10

Post by ya3r » Wed, Jan 08, 2014, 1:58 PM UTC

The ability to turn off features.