Emacs in the era of IDEs

Question

I am relatively new in a software development. I have noticed that in some cases a text editor with extended text processing capabilities (I use Notepad++) gives me a better productivity than an IDE (I use the Eclipse and the Netbeans). In the era of IDEs, does it makes sense to learn emacs (or some other tool that you suggest?)

Answer 1

Yes, and no.

Yes for the exact same reason why a doctor should be able to get an approximate diagnose from your symptoms by using his experience, and not putting the list of symptoms in a google query and find the answer.

Yes for the exact same reason why airliner pilots are taught to fly without fly-by-wire even if all airplanes are today fly-by-wire, so almost everybody is able to keep them flying.

No, because if you need specific tools to make your life easier, such as GUI designers, Intellisense, access to documentation, then clearly Emacs is not enough. Still, I remember that many developers at Microsoft organized a fund raising for uganda vim children.

Summing up, you need to use what makes you more productive. In many cases, emacs (or vim) is more productive than a huge IDE that makes coffee.

Answer 2

Even if you were using an IDE, it's still useful to know Emacs/VIM. You don't have your IDE around all the time, and while doing something via SSH, you don't really have any other option (yeah you can use nano, but thats not very effective).