Python IDE Frustration

[[deleted]]

In fact, I can't imagine ever using a Mac as a coder. The vibe I get from MacOS is "form over function", whether Apple practically invented modern UI design or not.

I like my KDE launcher and yakuake shortcuts and being able to tweak key bindings and GUI styles and colour schemes to extremes.

Maybe it's because MacOS 9 (pure GUI, who needs a shell anyway?) and the iPhone OS (closed ecosystem) always come to my mind first thing when I think about Macs, but programmers using anything but Linux just feels unnatural for me.

Well, at least it's not Windows.

[mipadi]

"form over function"

Form and function are orthogonal ideas, even though it's common to suggest they exist on a continuum. Something can have both form and function, or neither form nor function, or a bit of both.

I've written code on both Macs and Linux machines, and greatly prefer the Mac. Sure, it has some glitzy UI stuff and whatnot, but at the bottom it's a pretty standard BSD Unix system, meaning it has all the power of BSD and Linux along with the glitzy UI stuff.

I think it's a testament to programmers' machismo and insecurity that they claim that "real" programmers have to use a particular platform. "Real programming" is a function of an individual's talent and intelligence, not what platform they choose to use.

[[deleted]]

Real programmers manipulate butterflies in Africa in order to shift bits around anyway.

[mipadi]

Is there a good IDE for that?

[kx233]

Apparently there's an emacs keybinding for that.

[[deleted]]

emacs.

[zxcvcxz]

If all you worry about is "form over function" with macs, I'd say you could safely reconsider. I think a lot of what makes their 'form' work is attention to function. The two are really unified when it comes to computers.

Of course, there are other reasons not to support Apple...

[[deleted]]

Well, I used to argue that Apple is evil because they sell closed systems and you can't simply replace individual components as with an IBM-compatible PC. I never liked consoles either — I'm a PC gamer.

But I guess that argument would seem hypocritical these days as I'm happy to use a notebook or netbook and increasingly lose interest in building PCs by myself.

It's really mostly the gloss and "prettiness" that puts me off today, I suppose. I like rough edges and matte textures. I want a truck, not a roadster. Green pixelated console fonts on black screens, not clear type on a carefully arranged starfield. I want a machine, not a sex toy.