Unix as IDE
This was how Unix was presented to me when I was first introduced to me. I was told it was like industrial machinery - designed for those who know how to use it, efficient, dangerous if you aren&#x27;t careful.<p>Which is exactly what a good tool should be.<p>When IDEs (the kind that comes as a GUI&#x27;ed bundle of things thought to be the most appropriate for the purpose by committee of someones, somewhere) started becoming popular, I didn&#x27;t get it, at all. Put aside tool tips (which annoy me far more than is rational); it seemed to me that the idea was to build a toy model workshop on the work bench of a fully outfitted workshop. Why would anyone want to use that? Why bother in the first place?<p>I mean, I do get it. And who knows, maybe if I used one of those long enough to break muscle memory and the conceptual assumptions that don&#x27;t map, I&#x27;d change my mind. But so far, vi + shell + standard utilities + what I build have served me just fine, and if for some reason I were to need &quot;more power&quot;, whatever that means, I&#x27;d probably move to emacs.<p>And I still maintain that tool tips&#x2F;balloon help&#x2F;<i>obscuring the very thing you&#x27;re pointing at</i> is a stupidly rude anti-pattern. Even worse is not making it possible to turn off.