Back when I started coding I swore I'd never use an IDE, just a text editor

I spent my first 6 months learning Python in Notepad++ because I thought IDEs were for people who couldn't handle the terminal. Then I watched a coworker debug a loop in 2 minutes using VS Code's breakpoints and felt pretty dumb. What specific feature finally convinced you to switch over to a proper IDE?

3 comments

3 Comments

nancy_king2914d ago

Used to be the exact same way, thought IDEs were just training wheels. Then I had to refactor a project with like 50 files and actually trying to do find-and-replace in a text editor made me want to cry. Took maybe an hour to set up VS Code and I've never looked back.

brooke_jones14d ago

Wait, was I supposed to feel dumb for using Notepad++ too? Because I definitely did the SAME thing for like a year. What finally made me switch was the debugger, honestly. I was banging my head against a complex list comprehension and my coworker just walked over, dropped a breakpoint, and showed me every single value step by step. That one moment made me realize I was just making things harder for myself for NO reason.

stella2214d ago

Honestly, the thing that got me wasn't even debugging - it was the autocomplete. I'd been typing out full variable names for years like some kind of masochist, and the first time I typed "df." and it showed me every single column name in my dataset I nearly fell out of my chair. I didn't realize how much time I wasted on typos and remembering method names until it was just handed to me. Now I can't go back to a plain text editor without feeling like I'm trying to hike a mountain in flip-flops.