[jaeusm]

I have started the emacs tutorial and haven't yet met the great and powerful Oz of emacs.

That's because he started using VIM.

[forrestcupp]

Originally posted by jaeusm
Then you should learn it and use it before speculating its worth.

I was required to learn VI while coding in linux in grad school. Professionally, I use Visual Studio daily. Each environment definitely has its own advantages and disadvantages. As a result, neither environment is superior to the other in every situation. There is quite a steep learning curve associated with some text editors, but the payoff is huge if you stick with it.

Why do I need to waste my time learning that when I'm perfectly happy with my IDE? You're just doing what I said in my first post. You say the payoff is huge, but no one has ever been able to tell me what that payoff is. I would rather spend my time learning more about programming than learning some steep learning curve of something that just makes it possible for me to program.

[jaeusm]

The payoff, obviously, is efficiency. An IDE is not the right tool 100% of the time, and likewise, a text editor is not the right tool 100% of the time. Try it for a few months before making your judgment.

I would rather spend my time learning more about programming

You can learn both concurrently -- they are not mutually exclusive. I had to learn both while in grad school.

[bhughesiii]

I basically learned to use a text editor so that I could config my servers. Much better to do the config files manually rather than rely on a GUI to do it.