Shell Vs Ide

See IdeInsteadOfEditor

In general, if you were raised using a shell, you prefer a shell. If you were raised using an IDE, you prefer that. Seems to be a ReligiousWar even deeper than EmacsVsVi.

I was "raised" (odd word to use for something that I learned without help...) using an IDE, but now find shells vastly preferable. There are two other posts here made by people sharing my first name, and I wholeheartedly agree with both. That, and with a command line I can replace the shell and keep the tools the same; you can't replace an IDE and keep its plugins the same. -- DanielKnapp

I strongly disagree. I was raised using a shell (and a line editor), but I rarely use them today. I can be much more productive with a good IDE. And I don't mean Unix. -- EricHodges

Does this hold for those raised on punched card decks (IBM 7094 mid-70s assembly language), then punched tape (PDP8/I), then DECTAPE (PDP11e) and so forth before ever encountering a shell (Unix V6 on PDP11/70)? Never saw an IDE until Smalltalk came along (which I've never used but admired). Immediately switched to VisualAge around 1998 because because it was simply more productive. Do people really argue about such things. Why not just use the best tool for the job? --BradCox

My take is that the IDE often gets in the way - I cannot tweak something, or cannot copy the project easily, or cannot transfer to another environment easily. Often, IDEs impose a lot of their strictures on my project - like J++ having some oddball way of spacing GUI components that I could not easily modify without having to use the tool again. I found I was vastly more productive with 3 xterms and vi than with Visual Cafe. In short, for me the shell is the best tool for the job. -- Pete Hardie

Quality (i.e. "betterness") is neither intrinsic nor subjective; it's objective. Sometimes an IDE is better, sometimes a shell is better. Use whichever one best helps you get done the job you're doing. The answer to which one is better presupposes that the following questions have been answered:

Better for whom? Better by what standard? --DanHankins

(It would be interesting if you could give examples of each situation. What are some common situations where an IDE is better, and some common situations where a shell is better?)

I spent 7 years with Unix before learning Smalltalk. Although I still use the shell when I am not doing Smalltalk, I don't miss it when I am. That's because I can hack the Smalltalk IDE any way I want. I think the problem with the other IDEs is that you don't have source for them and can't hack them, not that they are IDEs. Demand source! --RalphJohnson

It appears that most IDE's are geared towards Java and C++, whereas I do most of my programming in ObjectiveCaml. I didn't yet find an IDE that is helpful when programming O'Caml. But there is a Vim mode for O'Caml, it comes even standard with the distribution. -- StephanHouben

For me this has something to do with MentalEconomy?: using the command line and a good editor (my vote's for vi) feels more incremental, learning one tool at a time, than getting an ide which I won't be able to make full use of until I've learnt enough to get into the culture of this particular ide. If I change programming language I know I will have lots of use for the command line tools and editor I've learnt, but to be able to use what I learnt with an ide I probably have to find an implementation of the same ide for this language. ~- DanielLundin

Lets settle this debate once and for all: UnixIsAnIde, --DaveWhipp

I'm glad someone already said this. UnixIsAnIde. It's one of the first and best. --rjbs

Ye verily, CLIs are so much better than GUIs. That's why everyone is using CLIs exclusively.