[tomjakubowski]

> significantly slower without an IDE, compiler or debugger … In fact, I don't think you would be a professional programmer if you didn't have them.

This is a strange take. Programmers were around before any of those tools were. And today, even many professional programmers do their work without using any of them: they use text editors, they write interpreted languages, and they use printf()-debugging or other techniques.

[brettgriffin]

They are examples, the exactness is not what is important here. Choosing something that is not connected to electricity, an OS, or the internet to be a software developer's _most important_ tool is, in fact, the strange position here.

[reaperducer]

Choosing something that is not connected to electricity, an OS, or the internet to be a software developer's _most important_ tool is, in fact, the strange position here.

Like a human brain? I'd say that is the programmer's most important tool, and it is not connected to electricity, an OS, or the internet.

[frankish]

Hmm, but doesn't the brain run on electricity? And why couldn't it possibly have something like an OS? I don't think we know exactly how the brain works

[brettgriffin]

As much as I hate that answer I think it is better than a pen and and a notebook.