Why I hate IDEs

I’m working on a project with Websphere Device Developer, and it constantly reminds me of why I hate integrated development environments (IDEs).

Why do I hate IDEs? Let me count the ways.

1. It’s a whole new interface that you have to learn. How do I save files? How do I save a project? How do I move around in an editor? All these questions need to be answered when I move to a new IDE; but they all lead to a more fundamental question: why should I have to relearn how to use my keyboard every time I get a new IDE.

2. One way to do things. Most IDEs have one favored way of doing anything. They may support other means, but only haphazardly. For instance, WSDD supports me editing files the filesystem, rather than through their editor, but freaks out if I use CVS (it has problems if I use most anything other than commit and update). But sometimes you aren’t even allowed the alternate method. I’m trying to get a project that was developed with one CVS repository to move to another CVS repository. WSDD lets you change repository information, but only if the project is still talking to the *same* host with the *same* cvs root. Thanks a lot guys.

3. IDEs are big pieces of code and as the size of a piece of code increases, the stability tends to decrease. In addition, they are being updated a lot more with new features (gotta give the companies some reason to buy, right). This means that you have to be aware of the environment (how often do I have to save, what work arounds do I have to use) and hence less focused on what you’re really trying to do, which is write code.

4. My biggest gripe with IDEs, however, is that they do stuff I don’t understand when I write or compile code. Now, I don’t think I should have to understand everything–I have no idea how GCC works in anything other than the most abstract sense. But and IDE is something that I interact with every day, and it’s my main interface to the code. When one does something I don’t understand to the product of my time, that scares me. I’m not just talking about code generation, although that is scary enough (just because something else generated the code, that doesn’t mean that it is right or that you won’t have to wade in and maintain it–and maintaining stuff that I write from the ground up is hard enough for me without bringing in machine generated code). I’m also talking about all the meta state that IDEs like to maintain. What files are included where, external libraries, etc. Now, of course, something has to maintain that state, but does it have to be a monolithic program with (probably) poor documentation on that process?

Some people will say that IDEs aren’t all that bad and can lead to huge productivity increases. This may be the case during the coding phase, but how much of that is lost when you have to learn a new IDE’s set of behaviors or spend time figuring out why your environment is broken by the IDE? Give me simple, reliable, old fashioned and well understood tools any day over the slick, expensive, tools that I don’t know and will have to learn each time I use a new one.