I\u2019m going to keep today\u2019s blog short and sweet, partly because it\u2019s a simple point to make, and partly because anything else would contradict the whole premise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So here\u2019s the thing \u2013 the tech scene is characterized by constant debate and internal disagreement, to a degree comparable to that of a professional sports league. At peak intensity, it sometimes feels like a real-life version of the pineapple pizza diatribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is normal, good, and \u2013 barring those cases when people start behaving like total jerks \u2013 mostly healthy. Languages, frameworks, and tools in programming can be radically different from each other, and the way people learn about and understand these differences is by talking. (Ok, maybe sometimes yelling<\/em> \u2013 but mostly talking.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n But one thing that leaves me supremely perplexed is when I see people get in arguments over which text editor is the best. All the more so when the programmers in question are not very experienced (and I work for a coding school<\/a>, so I hang around with inexperienced programmers a lot).<\/p>\n\n\n\n That debate is just like… no<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The point of this blog isn\u2019t to say that all text editors are the same and\/or that it makes no difference at all which one you\u2019re using. Duh. If you\u2019re especially comfortable right-clicking on tabs to copy file paths, then yes, it matters that you should be on Notepad++. And if you\u2019re setting up a team for a start-up, perhaps you\u2019ll want to recommend to your devs a common text editor, just to make sure the code is not variable to the point where it becomes harder to maintain (although, of course, you could always just use a pretty-printer…).<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn Productivity And Subtlety<\/h2>\n\n\n\n