Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by hairsupply 6317 days ago
"We haven't met a single great hacker that relied on an IDE, although we hear they exist."

The implication here is completely in the negative.

Further, it's like saying "If you want to be a hacker, use English measuring units because we've never any met any great hackers who use the metric system."

Just because a bunch of rails hackers don't use an IDE doesn't imply the contrapositive.
1 comments
danielharan 6317 days ago
I hear they exist, I've just never met them. That could be my sampling bias. None of the people around me relying on IDEs are great hackers.

Instead of arguing about what might have been implied in what I wrote, I'd rather you introduced me to people you consider great hackers that use an IDE. Know any?

link
hairsupply 6317 days ago
The people who I work with whom I regard as great hackers work almost exclusively in the real time embedded space (industrial automation systems) and don't have web notoriety.

Slightly more prominent individuals could include Ted Neward (http://blogs.tedneward.com), Joe Duffy (http://www.bluebytesoftware.com/blog/default.aspx), James Devlin(http://www.codingthewheel.com/archives/how-i-built-a-working...), and Dustin Campbell (http://diditwith.net)

link
copenja 6316 days ago
It is about using the right tool for the right job. What you appear to be doing is using the right tool for your job, then concluding that everyone should use your tool for their job.

Here is a great IDE hacker:

John Carmack, ID Software, uses Visual Studio

I work at a game startup making their first PS3 title. The C++ engine team does development in Visual Studio and the tools guys do python outside of an IDE.

Do you really think that is evidence that all the tools guys are superior to the engine guys?

It doesn't, both can be great and both can be mediocre.

link