Re: What IDE are you using?

Andrew DeFaria said the following on 24/10/2005 22:15:
> Oli Filth wrote:
>
>>> True, but OTOH, code completion makes people lazy. Text editors force
>>> you to remember functions, which I think is a benefit.
>>
>>
>> Are you serious?? ;)
>>
>> Where's the benefit in having to remember the exact syntax for
>> hundreds/thousands of functions?
>
>
> Of what benefit is there to be using functions that you don't know
> intimately?!?

Sure, you should know what they do and what you're trying to achieve by
using them, but knowing whether it's xml_parser_create() or
XmlParserCreate() or xmlParserCreate() (or equally, whether it's
strstr($needle, $haystack) or strstr($haystack, $needle)) is nothing but
an exercise in trivia.

Of course, you can flick to the online manual and find out, but that
must be at least 20 times slower (not to mention disruptive to the
coding "flow") than simply typing the first few letters into an IDE and
then pressing Tab for auto-complete (or the equivalent).

> Perhaps it's clearest benefit is the realization that any such library
> that has hundreds/thousands of functions is way to complex to be using!

Unfortunately, most APIs are necessarily complex...

>> You might as well be programming in assembler if you like it raw! :)
>
> Assembler would be quicker! Running that is. And yes some people still
> program in assembler. http://grc.com/smgassembly.htm

Yup, I still do too ;) But only for embedded stuff.

-- 
Oli