Why Are Some Developers So Allergic to IDEs? (discussion)

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1 pointwaterlink3 comments

I prefer not to use mouse at all while coding which I just can't do with IDE. Vim, cscope, ctags provide me all the powerful utilities that I need for faster navigation and editing. Most of the times refactoring needs multiple source files to be looked at and edited simultaneously. In these cases, I split vim in different (even up to 4) screens which enables quick cut-N-paste operations across different files.

I use IDE (IntelliJ) and I almost never use the mouse. Knowing all the shortcuts and using the “Find action” (CMD/CTRL+SHIFT+A) and “Find everything” (SHIFT+SHIFT) tools help a lot. These tools also allow you to discover shortcuts for things you didn’t know.

The no-mouse challenge for a few hours makes you more proficient at using IDE without a mouse, and only keyboard.

Also, complex refactorings are so much faster in IDE, and I do refactor every 2-5 minutes as part of my TDD workflow, so IDE really makes me much more productive as I would otherwise be.

I will try it out. More than anything it seems inertia and being comfortable in one's environment are the reasons for not switching to IDE.

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