

Ask HN: does scarcity lead to better design? - Tichy

Maybe it is a no-brainer, but I just thought about this while pondering the switch from Eclipse to Vim. On the one hand being used to an IDE, I am worried that I won't manage so well with complex tasks. On the other hand the problem might not be the development environment, but the programming language and framework (can't handle Java without IDE). So using a more restricted development environment (not saying Vim is, I don't know it yet), I would automatically aim for more simplicity and tractability in my code.<p>On a related note, if Oil had always been scarce, SUVs (epitome of ugliness, bad taste and atrocious design) might never have been created.<p>On the other hand, presumably one can't simply state "the more scarcity the better", there is some kind of sweet spot?
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ulf
This is something you have to figure out for yourself. As long as you are very
aware of the things the IDE does for you, it does not necessarily end up in
worse design. As for the opposite, using only a text-editor will not make your
software better automatically. You have to find your own balance.

