Programming in a Text Editor
- Category: Software Development
- Posted On: 5/3/2006
- Views: 4,991
I have to admit that I take a great deal of pride in programming using only a text editor. Efficiently pounding out thousands of lines of code without the help of an IDE and things like drag-and-drop, intellisense, etc. shows an intimate mastery of the language. However, the drawbacks are great when compared to others who are efficient in an IDE. So, why would you choose a text editor over a robust tool like Visual Studio? The answer used to be simple... control. You see, the visual designers for Visual Studio USED to be like FrontPage and everything you manipulated by hand was almost guaranteed to be jumbled up by the designer. I hate when programs change my source code the way I wrote it!!! There's nothing more annoying than having your spacing and indentations messed up and seeing seemingly randomly inserted code within your work. It's almost like trying to paint a fast car while others keep running around with different colors of touch-up making marks. However, the 2005 version of Visual Studio has taken great strides and I am finally able to "trust" the program not to mess with my code. The "bloat" of a large IDE is still annoying at times when you simply want to make a quick edit, so I'll keep my trusty TextPad handy just in case.
- Category: Software Development
- Posted On: 5/3/2006
- Views: 4,991