"Orchid XP v8" <voi### [at] devnull> wrote in message
news:4b88f1e9$1@news.povray.org...
> OK, so apart from syntax hilighting, what does an IDE actually do?
>
> Obviously I haven't used many IDEs, but watching a discussion about the
> topic, there seem to be two camps of opinion:
>
> 1. Expert programmers using powerful programming languages don't need an
> IDE. (Alternatively, "if you need an IDE, you're a bad programmer or
> you're using an inferior language".)
>
> 2. Large systems require an IDE. (Alternatively, "if you don't need an
> IDE, you're only writing toy programs. Or you're just too stupid to
> realise that you need an IDE.")

It's not really the size but the nature of the development. (Visual) IDE's
save a lot of time and effort with the tedious, design related (be it DB or
GUI), "non-coding" type tasks. And it's hard to draw the line nowadays
between IDE's and programmers' editors. Syntax highlighting used to be an
IDE job, now every notepad replacement does it. Same for code folding, maybe
to a lesser degree. Refectoring is probably next. As both IDEs and editors
get more complex, today's IDE becomes tomorrow's editor. Use what's right
for the job, instead of following the hype.

Post a reply to this message