So, I have been mostly self thaught programmer (C++), as its a big part of my job (not a regular developer). But so far I have been using a simple text editor like Geany to code and I compile stuff either in terminal (linux) or produce my own make file.
I am starting to wonder if I should switch to a full IDE, as I am on linux, I was thinking of trying KDevelop. But I am simply not sure if its worth, do I even need it?
I have never used an IDE, it seems kind of complicated for the start with “projects” and I havent really found any good introductions to how this workflow is supposed to work.
Do you think using and IDE is something everyone should use? Or do you think a text editor with producing your own make files should be enough?
Yes and the refactoring, suggestions and, in some cases, debugging tools are also very useful.
I used to be a text editor only kind of person and thought it meant I was a better programmer who didn’t need a crutch. In reality, I was wasting time whenever I wanted to rename something, never had any help regarding the standard library so wasted time looking up parameter ordering and namespace names. I had to compile to find syntax errors.
With an IDE, I can pretty proficiently write code in (almost) any language thrown at me if it gives me linting and suggestions. I’m nowhere near as fast as in languages I’m comfortable with but it’s such a huge help that it gets me most of the way there.