Ask HN: Are IDEs Distracting for You? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Are IDEs Distracting for You?

2 pointsizoow5 comments

Just some context:

I primarily use VS Code for all my programming needs. I am very accustomed to all its features at this point. Using things like multiple cursors I can get editing operations done much faster than I was ever able to in Vim. With all its LSP features and fuzzy finding I can navigate around and write or refactor code quickly and painlessly as well. (I'm sure some of the Vim masters could get things done even faster in Vim, this is just with my skill set and experience)

However, whenever I get stuck, I discovered that switching to plain vanilla Vim without any of those fancy features set-up often helps me get some progress done. Writing and navigating around code suddenly takes some effort without all the help from a LSP, and I feel like that forces me to actually focus and think twice before I end up doing anything. I also find myself doing things the simple way rather than trying to invent a bunch of unnecessary abstractions upfront for that same reason. Another nice benefit is that I can write out all my code and fix all the errors after the compiler the compiler informs me of them. I'm not distracted from the main idea by banal errors like me messing up a function call.

I am just curious, does anyone else have a similiar experience?

No, but Emacs and Vim/Neovim, with the endless customization (which is required to bring them to full functionality) are. They are more tinker-friendly and tinker-needing than an IDE out of the box.

If you can stick to their vanilla versions, sure. You just miss some basic functionality though, like good autocomplete.

> which is required to bring them to full functionality

I think that's the wrong way to look at them. If you want vim to do everything that an IDE does, actually you want an IDE.

All I use in vim is syntax highlighting and something like "Ctrl + P". Whenever I want more (typically autocomplete), I start my favourite IDE (for me that's JetBrains' IDEs).

>I think that's the wrong way to look at them. If you want vim to do everything that an IDE does, actually you want an IDE.

An IDE can do 1000 things. I do want 10-20 of them that are standard by now, like autocomplete, linting, debugger integration, git integration, ability to execute a test suite, etc.

With IDEs those come as default and don't even require configuration for most languages.

With Emacs/Vim you need to piece it together or use some "config distribution" (which might still fall short). And there's always huge room to tinker, and lots of things to improve.

>All I use in vim is syntax highlighting and something like "Ctrl + P".

Well, good for you, but that's a very low bar, even for Vim.

Even more so for Emacs, which is all about tons of customization options and expanded functionality.

No, They streamline my workflow.

Did you try vscode Zen mode?

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