Seeking old post on developers who like IDEs vs developers who like simple languages

[Aahz]

In article <mff7e6-e43.ln1 at satorlaser.homedns.org>,
Ulrich Eckhardt  <eckhardt at satorlaser.com> wrote:
>Steve Ferg wrote:
>>
>> On the one hand, there are developers who love big IDEs with lots of
>> features (code generation, error checking, etc.), and rely on them to
>> provide the high level of support needed to be reasonably productive
>> in heavy-weight languages (e.g. Java).
>> 
>> On the other hand there are developers who much prefer to keep things
>> light-weight and simple.  They like clean high-level languages (e.g.
>> Python) which are compact enough that you can keep the whole language
>> in your head, and require only a good text editor to be used
>> effectively.
>
>This distinction is IMHO not correct. If you took a look at Java, you would
>notice that the core language syntax is much simpler than Python's. 

That's half-true.  The problem is that you have to digest a much bigger
chunk of Java before you can start being productive.  Consider how simple
it is to write a non-regex grep in Python.  In addition, Python's object
model is simpler than Java's, not even talking about the contortions that
Java's static class model forces you into.
-- 
Aahz (aahz at pythoncraft.com)           <*>         http://www.pythoncraft.com/

"In 1968 it took the computing power of 2 C-64's to fly a rocket to the moon.
Now, in 1998 it takes the Power of a Pentium 200 to run Microsoft Windows 98.
Something must have gone wrong."  --/bin/fortune