Over the years I’ve used Xcode, VisualStudio, Borland, Eclipse, JDeveloper, Netbeans, Notepad, Atom, Sublime etc to write code
I use IntelliJ/IDEA because it’s a tool that delights. Not many bits of software are such that I interrupt other colleagues to show them some neat feature or shortcut.
I really like how easy it is to find a method or a hint of something in a huge codebase. Or refactor or rename files. The way it tells me that I copied this line here but forgot to change something. Small things like when constants are don't follow naming conventions or are put in a bad location. And the bits of advice here and there on better ways to write code. It's like an automated mentor.
I have also been using VS Code lately, which is fine, though I had to spend a lot of time learning how to configure it to stop flashing and blinking and getting in my way with all of its distracting attempts to help me.
I really got turned off from my tool (IDE) assuming things I wanted to be done and doing things for me without my knowledge. I don't need wizards to start projects. I also wanted my editor to open when I open it and not seemingly minutes after that.
This means I don't have high-end things like documentation lookup at a keypress while editing. I'm ok with that, I can find the docs online, probably already have them open if its part of a language I'm not familiar with.
If I were in the JVM world then IntelliJ IDEA.
I use vim now mostly with plugins like vim-go
And Cloud9. Very nice online editor.
Edit: I should state that grep is one of the most important components of my development cycle.
Years ago I used Eclipse, but eventually tried Intellij and I've never looked back. It's such a great tool and I'm happy to pay for it.
I'm considering writing my own native desktop app that has the keyboard shorcuts of vim that I use, but I'd be able to customize it more.. maybe a 3d world where my open files are like mine craft blocks.. and my build process is like a river.
Who would use it?