[thorn]

I totally agree with you. For me more important would be to improve the way how I solve problems, how I think about problems. People tends to pay too much attention to the speed of coding.

I wonder if any tests were made about how much time is spend to actual thinking versus coding the idea? Which area is more worth to work on?

[Edmond]

>I wonder if any tests were made about how much time is spend to actual thinking versus coding the idea? Which area is more worth to work on?

I doubt it, if they did it would almost certainly be disappointing.

This is a question I have posed in the past, how helpful/useful is auto-complete/intelli-sense?

I think it is one of those IDE features that is similar to the automatic window slider in your car, you come to expect it because it does offer some convenience but adds little to your overall driving comfort.

It is indeed the case that most of what you spend time on isn't the code writing part when trying to solve problems. Typically you spend most time thinking about the problem and the actual code that results from that thinking can be just a few lines. Heck, sometimes the end result of thinking is to eliminate code:)

For me I think syntax highlighting and automatic syntax checking offers more utility than auto-complete. My startup's product is a web development tool that I now use as my primary IDE but it currently lacks automatic syntax checking, I can definitely say that this is something I miss from when I was using Netbeans.

Overall I think auto-complete has utility but the reverence for it far outweigh its actually utility.

[seanmcdirmid]

It is more like the GPS in your car. Do you prefer looking at paper maps or the GPU unit telling you where to turn next?

Autocomplete allows libraries to get larger and more complex, for better or worse, since developers can just forgo documentation (paper maps) and rely on autocomplete menus (GPS). Your power windows don't help you drive at all.

[mongol]

There are so many different types of programming. Plumbing vs algorithmic is maybe one way to describe it. For plumbing, which is about moving data between systems or between a user interface and a database, there is often nor so very much thinking involved. It is the boring type of programming but I am sure the most common.

[nraynaud]

it's not about the speed of coding, it's about navigating the API and the existing code quicker. Those little helps are just so that you keep your brain at a higher level instead of focusing on tabs and semicolons. You focus on making loops, renaming variables, throwing exception, not on specific syntax things. Somehow it's the closest working things to all those visual languages they tried in the 90's.

it's not really faster, it just avoid de-focusing, it's the continuation of the bicycle for the mind thing.