[oldmanjay]

In my opinion, other people's opinions about how I program are worth just about nothing.

I'll never understand the sort of arrogance that leads to posting things like that. do you really believe you're so smart that you figured out the only way anyone should do anything?

[danford]

Well, I wasn't trying to be arrogant.. sorry. But would you really take a programming class taught by a professor who doesn't know how to use a terminal?

[to3m]

Fondness for the terminal or shell is a question of mindset, not ability. You might be surprised (as I was... and, if I'm honest, still am, a little) at how many skilled programmers there are who don't know how to use it, and how many of those that do know, don't actually make use of that knowledge. And yet, they are still worth paying attention to, unless perhaps you're wanting advice about shell commands.

And on the flip side I have also met a number of (relative) dullards whose shell skills were unquestionable.

[xg15]

Well, Alan Turing certainly did not know how to use a terminal :) For some reason his work is still highly relevant today. So yes, I would.

[irahul]

What is there to learn about the terminal? You learn the shell, coreutils, shell scripting, sed, awk, editor...Learning these isn't a measure of competency. If you just want name dropping, John Carmack works in Visual Studio, Notch works in Eclipse.

[JoelHobson]

Yes, absolutely. It'd be a little odd if they hadn't picked up that skill, but I don't see what relevance using or preferring vim could have to, say, teaching functional programming.

[m_mueller]

Knowing how to use a terminal != using a terminal for everything.

[danford]

I never said that. Anywhere.

[m_mueller]

Yet you seem to be mixing these things up.

> IMHO if you're a programmer you should know how to use a terminal to the point that you prefer it over most GUIs

Knowing how to use a terminal: Yes, should be required and isn't taught enough. Preferring it for almost any task - no, it depends on the task and it depends on what you're the most efficient with. I have yet to see a clinical study showing that terminal editing leads to performance improvements over proficient use of hotkey based editing with keyboard and mouse. I have nothing against people using it on a project I lead, but I would never make it a criterium.

> Vim and terminal usage is not a "time sink" and it pains me whenever I hear people who consider them selves "programmers" claim it to be.

Again, you're mixing up terminal proficiency with using it as a your main editor, then belittle those who don't agree with you.

> If you haven't learned how to use the terminal yet (or haven't found a use for it) then you aren't a respectable programmer IMHO.

I agree with that, but it's a different point as outlined above.