[sciolizer]

I have to disagree strongly with point 2. IDEs are much better at the read path than simple text editors are. Critical to reading code quickly is being able to navigate it quickly, answering questions like "What are the subclasses of this?", "Where is this called?", "What are the methods in this interface?", "What does super do?", etc. Grep can only take you so far. Language server protocol is definitely improving things, but it still can't answer questions like "What is the chain of function calls linking the creation of this object to its eventual use?"

[ilovecaching]

You’ve been able to do this with ctags for a long time, which is also the only way you’re ever going to get goto def and dec in a large project like the Linux kernel. Vim even has built in goto, search, etc for ctags.

But really, if an IDE is allowing you to write code you can’t understand without the IDE that’s a bad thing. Forcing yourself into a situation where you have to compartmentalize is going to make you a better programmer and lead to better code.

[haimez]

Strong disagree with your thesis here. Most navigators of code are looking for something, and that something is not the most elegant refactor to make to cut some particular Gordian knot.

Navigation tools are essential especially because the (vastly) larger audience is uninitiated.