Relax. I'm not saying I don't think IDEs are useful or that I don't use one myself. The point of TFA is that there's some benefit, especially when learning a language, to just getting down to the business of writing text, compiling, and running it with as little other cognitive load as possible.
"Right, because using vim or emacs is a matter of apt-get and off you go rollseyes "
Uh, yes? Isn't that exactly what was demonstrated in the article? Substitute Notepad or whatever is on hand instead of vim/emacs if you want - what configuration could possibly be needed for producing a text file? Fancy editing features are nice, but again - the point is to just get down to writing code. Maybe your overreaction to the ghastly notion of using vim or emacs belies your assumption that hipster straw men are trying to steal your IDE from you and make you write Rails code in Vim.
Anyway, I'll bet you an upvote you couldn't present a similarly concise example of how to write, compile, and run an Erlang program using an IDE.
Yeah I get riled up too easily the last few weeks, and over absolutely trivial things - I should get some vacation.
Anyway I don't disagree with the notion that starting with a basic setup gives one a deeper insight into the tools. I have C++ noobs call g++ from the command line and then link object files manually. Also I've used vim since 1997 and still do daily, so it's not like I'm unfamiliar with 'plain' text editors. But hardly anybody who does 'real' work with just the editor without configuration - the amount of time spend on vim-users to save a few keystrokes attests to that. The whole reason to use vim or emacs is because they're so configurable.
I don't know about Erlang, but using Visual Studio I can make and run a C++ program without having to touch the keyboard, apart from typing the name of the project. I'm not sure what the amount of keystrokes to run a useless most basic program has to do with how easy it is to learn.
What annoyed me was the tone in TFA belittling the use of IDE's. After some size of a project, IDE's do have added value in exploring API's, structure of the project etc. There's no need to project one's idea that somehow using one or the other is 'morally superior' or makes one 'a better programmer'.
(it's quite ironic that I'm saying this, since for years I was a vim 'advocate', basically meaning to me that I took every opportunity to show people how superior vim was for every task imaginable; even if I had to spend 1/2 day writing a macro in vim's obscure macro language to accomplish a task that could've been done in 10 minutes by hand..I've come around now and I guess that's why I react so strongly now, much like ex-smokers who are often the most obnoxious anti-smoking campaigners).
Ah. Ok, thanks - I totally get where you're coming from now and can definitely relate to your sentiment. The "you must use an IDE" crowd irks me just as much as the "you must use only Vim" one.
Maybe it's an inevitable part of a developer's progression to annoyingly latch onto some tool or another as "the one way", but hopefully we eventually emerge from that phase and have a better perspective on how each tool can be useful in combination with others.
I've been telling anyone who will listen that the world would be a much better place if Vim or Emacs could be embedded as the text editor in your favorite IDE. Use the IDE's refactoring, auto-completion, and workflow features and still have the full power of the editor's text manipulation, macros, and configurability. (To anticipate suggestions, I do believe that jVi in Netbeans is the next best thing to a full-fledged Vim, and love it dearly.)
Re: you last point, I 100% agree. I have tried the basic integration that Vim has with Visual Studio but it's a hack and I never stuck to it.
Then since 2005 or so, whenever it came out, I've been using ViEmu, a Visual Studio plugin that makes the VS text editor work like vim, complete with (parts of) the macro language. It's so awesome I can't help myself but bringing it up every time a topic remotely related to it comes up.
"Right, because using vim or emacs is a matter of apt-get and off you go rollseyes "
Uh, yes? Isn't that exactly what was demonstrated in the article? Substitute Notepad or whatever is on hand instead of vim/emacs if you want - what configuration could possibly be needed for producing a text file? Fancy editing features are nice, but again - the point is to just get down to writing code. Maybe your overreaction to the ghastly notion of using vim or emacs belies your assumption that hipster straw men are trying to steal your IDE from you and make you write Rails code in Vim.
Anyway, I'll bet you an upvote you couldn't present a similarly concise example of how to write, compile, and run an Erlang program using an IDE.