Don't get me wrong- this isn't a blanket dismissal of IDEs. I was just responding to someone who was amazed that there are still people that write code in text editors. I believe in using the right tool for the job and there are cases that call for a text editor as well as cases that call for an IDE.
I actually happen to use an IDE on a Java project every day at work. I think Java can be a difficult language to work with otherwise. It's verbose so you end up with an enormous amount of code and there's a very slow feedback cycle. These are areas where an IDE can really help.
I rarely find myself wanting an IDE when I'm coding in Perl, Python, Javascript or pretty much everything else I use. Then again, maybe it's because I haven't seen an IDE with much to offer other than code completion when working with these languages. I have almost zero need or want for code completion. For me, some of the best an IDE has to offer is the ability to find things quickly and refactoring. Many of them don't do a particularly good job at this with languages other than Java.
I actually happen to use an IDE on a Java project every day at work. I think Java can be a difficult language to work with otherwise. It's verbose so you end up with an enormous amount of code and there's a very slow feedback cycle. These are areas where an IDE can really help.
I rarely find myself wanting an IDE when I'm coding in Perl, Python, Javascript or pretty much everything else I use. Then again, maybe it's because I haven't seen an IDE with much to offer other than code completion when working with these languages. I have almost zero need or want for code completion. For me, some of the best an IDE has to offer is the ability to find things quickly and refactoring. Many of them don't do a particularly good job at this with languages other than Java.