I started off by using IDEs, Microsoft or not. Then, while working on QNX some long time ago, I was forced to do with a text editor + compiler/linker. Now I prefer this simple combination––a syntax highlighting editor + C compiler and linker cli + make––to any IDEs, even if environment allows for them.
The reasons are, for me:
-
it’s everywhere. If you program in C, you do have the compiler, and usually you can get yourself an editor. The first thing I do––I get myself nedit on Linux or Notepad++ on Windows. I would go with vi, but GUI editors provide for a better fonts, and that is important when you look at code all day
-
you can program remotely, via ssh, when you need to. And it does help a lot sometimes to be able to ssh into the target and do some quick things there
-
it keeps me close to CLI, preferably UNIX/Linux CLI. So all the commands are on my fingertips, and when I need them I don’t have to go read a reference book. And UNIX CLI can do things IDEs often can’t––because their developers didn’t think you’d need them
-
most importantly, it is very much like seeing the Matrix in raw code. I operate files, so I’m forced to keep them manageable. I’m finding things in my code manually, which makes me keep it simple and organized. I do Config Management explicitly, so I know when I’m synced and how. I know my Makefiles because I write them, and they only do what I tell them to
(if you wonder if that works in “really big projects”––it does work, and the bigger the project the more performance it gains me)
-
when people ask me to look at their code, I don’t have to learn the IDE they use