Benefits of Not Using an IDE

Post by noidesto » Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 4:06 PM UTC

IlliOnato wrote: post #96

The author seems to use IDE for one purpose only: to auto-generate boilerplate code. But this is far from the only benefits of IDEs! I rarely use IDEs for code generation, I don't even like autocomplete. For this stuff I use code snippets; I develop collections of those for any language I use. You don't need an IDE for it; any good text editor has such features. For me really important features of a good IDE are: - N…

Post by zerubeus » Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 4:06 PM UTC

Post by dolni » Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 4:08 PM UTC

Frost1x wrote: post #51

onion2k wrote: post #9

Not having an IDE doesn't make me remember things. In my case it just means I use a very limited subset of the features, because I'm not being reminded of the things I don't remember and I don't get to see newer language features unless I happen to read a blog post or see something here on HN. I tend to fall back to implementing things with primitives and fail to use built-in functionality.

For the longest time I was a proponent of limited tooling. In many cases its good to know what you're automating or simplifying because I often found myself in situations where I may have environments I need to do things where I didn't have my tooling to lean on. In the past, this was possible without too much pressure on cognitive load. In modern code bases with all sorts of libraries and layers of abstraction ontop…

Post by newbie2020 » Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 4:12 PM UTC

mankyd wrote: post #11

Rd6n6 wrote: post #4

A good ide is all about auto completion and refactoring tools. The autocompletion means you don’t have to spend as much time memorizing apis, so you can focus more on simplifying your design and minimizing coupling. In something like unreal engine, the intellisense really sets ides apart. The refactoring means you can quickly and easily make large changes to make the code easier to work in. You can just work signific…

Refactoring is where it's at for me. The ability to rename functions and variables across not just a local file, but all references in the code base is huge. Relatedly, the ability to find all usages of a symbol and navigate between them is indispensable for me at this point.

Post by inglor_cz » Sat, Aug 21, 2021, 4:13 PM UTC

falcolas wrote: post #103

city41 wrote: post #27

I consider not needing to remember library and api details a benefit. I'd rather dedicate my brain cycles to something else. As for syntax, I don't recall ever struggling to remember syntax of languages I frequently code in. Also the point about IDEs auto generating toHashCode, toString, etc. If your class needs these methods, whether they were auto generated or not seems besides the point. The point the IDE is "comp…

Why do doctors memorize medicines and their effects? Because it's faster to retrieve from memory than from documentation, even automatically presented documentation. It removes a context switch. The "brain cycles" are only run while doing the memorization, not while actually doing the work. > I don't recall ever struggling to remember syntax of languages I frequently code in. Because you've memorized it.