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Walked into a library coding meetup in Austin and realized half the people there were just using Notepad
No syntax highlighting no auto complete just raw text files and I wonder if that's actually a better way to learn than all these fancy editors we keep recommending.
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nancy1547h ago
Notepad is GREAT for beginners honestly. When you strip away all the helpers you have to actually learn the syntax yourself. Those fancy editors will autocomplete things for you and you never really understand why that semicolon goes there or how that bracket works. I started coding on a basic text editor and I swear it made me a stronger programmer because I had to remember everything. People rely too much on their tools doing the thinking for them and then they freeze when they have to code on a whiteboard during interviews. Real learning comes from the struggle of typing every single character yourself.
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ryan6537h ago
Four semicolons in a row is where I learned my lesson with Notepad back in 2006. Missed a bracket somewhere and spent three hours scrolling through 200 lines of code trying to find it. @nancy154 is right though that struggle is what sticks in your brain. I see these kids now hitting tab and getting entire functions auto-filled and they cant tell you why their for loop works or doesnt work. Whiteboard coding is the real test and if you never had to type out every curly brace yourself you're gonna choke.
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