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I started with something "less" than a text editor. Basic on Commodore 64, and believe me, it was a pain in the .... neck  After that I went to AmigaBasic a real text editor, I traveled through many different programming languages and editors until I landed on Visual Basic V. 1.0. It was like arrive to haven (Programmer's haven, of course). Water ran under bridges and now I am using Visual Studio (C#), and there is no way to return to my text editor's time. It is like get down from a limo to travel on a wheelbarrow. Of course this is my personal opinion, no offense 
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An IDE is like a free teacher (or paid depending on the one you use) that tells you where you are wrong.
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IDE hands down - especially when you are just starting. I mean you should, just for the experience, code apps up in using a notepad type text editor and command line compiler, be sure to use mutiliple files and include and if your chosen environment allows it build scripts.
Doing this as the main way of working just strikes me as bizarre and contrarian. I worked in one place where vi was the only editor hard-core enough, funnily enough I used emacs (the only viable alternative for our environnment) as was far more productive.
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I actually got pretty fast using vi for coding but it was vanilla c in those days ( shudder ) I also used WordStar for coding COBOL ( double shudder ) when intellisense first came out I didn't like it as it got in the way but would find it very difficult to live without now given the sheer size of frameworks these days. IDE 1 : Text Editor 0
We can’t stop here, this is bat country - Hunter S Thompson RIP
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Sure I use an IDE everyday. But when I learned, the ability to look things up, read the instructions, search the web, and think out my problem without typing were invaluable. I suppose the difference is will you be a technician or a master?
Ignoring the pro's and con's of an IDE it is fundamentally a tool for facilitating writing code not for learning to write the code. If you learn to program you will never know why the below code is wrong:
Int32.Parse(Session["someInteger"].ToString());
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...when clearly it should be Int64.Parse...
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it. --- George Santayana (December 16, 1863 – September 26, 1952)
Those who fail to clear history are doomed to explain it. --- OriginalGriff (February 24, 1959 – ∞)
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If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.-John Q. Adams
You must accept one of two basic premises: Either we are alone in the universe, or we are not alone in the universe. And either way, the implications are staggering.-Wernher von Braun
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.-Albert Einstein
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Hmmm, let's see:
Session could be null if session state is disabled for the application or the request;Session["someInteger"] could be null if the session's timed out (or you've misspelled the key);- If you stored an
Int32 in Session["someInteger"], drop the .ToString / .Parse and just unbox the value; - If you didn't store an
Int32 in Session["someInteger"] (why the elephant not?!) then Int32.Parse could throw a FormatException or an OverflowException; - Even if you did store an
Int32 in Session["someInteger"], the current culture settings might* prevent Int32.Parse from correctly parsing the result of the .ToString() call; - If you're not already doing it, this should be hidden behind a façade class;
Did I miss any? 
* I don't know for certain whether there are any culture settings that could do this, but since I don't know for certain that there aren't, it's safest to assume there are.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Not only is it wrong (i.e. unsafe), it's not required since the value of the successfully parsed integer isn't used anywhere. 
/ravi
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IMHO - to learn programming you need no computer at all. When I learned we got books to read, teachers to hear and questions/answers were delivered on paper...
I'm not questioning your powers of observation; I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is. (V)
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I'd vote for IDE as well... but while learning, also learn what it is the IDE is doing for you so that you're not stuck on things simply because the IDE has a bug or you don't know what it is the IDE does in the background.
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IDE without a doubt. But keep that text editor handy to go and have a snoop around in any generated files (e.g. config files) ... compare what you're seeing in the IDE with what you're seeing in the text file - best of both worlds
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"Depends"
#include <shamelessgeneralizations.h>
Depends how you learn.
An IDE can help you along by getting you up and running faster. So if you're going to get discouraged by not having results quick, then I'd say use an IDE that will help you along and get you to a project that will run quickly. Then tinker with it from there.
The problem a lot of IDEs have is that they frequently put boilerplate code in for you. Sometimes that's good, sometimes it's bad as it may give you a false sense of what's really required and what is really going on.
A text editor on the other hand demands you really "start from scratch." You have to navigate configuration of the tool chain (compilers, linkers, library paths, build options, etc.) BUT you get the satisfaction of knowing that if you didn't write it, it ain't in there.
Personally I'd much rather WORK with a text editor (I've no doubt my .emacs file is older than most people here.) But for learning a new language or platform, I like starting in an IDE with samples, then tinkering my way to enough knowledge to dispense with them entirely.
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IDE. Except that then you have to learn two things. 
I learned with a text editor and I still prefer that for writing actual code -- but not when a drag-and-drop designer is required. And IDEs tend to have a debugger as well.
Back in college everyone (even me) preferred to use Turbo Pascal's IDE (on a 386 PC clone) rather than use VAX Pascal with a VT100.
However you shouldn't get to point where you don't think you could possibly write a simple console app in a text editor and compile it on the command line.
Learn it with an IDE by all means, but come play on the fun side once in a while. 
This space intentionally left blank.
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The IDE will mostly help learn the API syntax, but not the language itself.
I'd rather be phishing!
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IDE helps to save the time and brings you all at your perusal. However for a beginner, i wont recommend IDE.
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For HTML, still I prefer Notepad. Hand coding!
thatrajaCode converters | Education Needed
No thanks, I am all stocked up. - Luc Pattyn
When you're wrestling a gorilla, you don't stop when you're tired, you stop when the gorilla is - Henry Minute
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IDE will maybe help you along the way but will also make your life difficult along the way. It does a lot of things for you, and it is good to know those things it does. With a text editor, you have to do those things yourself, thus you learn more. IDEs is not supported by all platforms so if the day arrives that you have to develop on a platform which doesn't support an IDE you'll be struggling coz you've been using a IDE.
Personally if I was you, I'd start off using text editor and later move to IDE. You get some kick ass text editors these days which can do exactly what IDEs can do.
"Program testing can be used to show the presence of bugs, but never to show their absence."
<< please vote!! >>
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If the IDE has an integrated debugger then I suggest using it, is so educational to watch how the code runs, how stuf works and ofcourse is easy to find your bugs.
simion314
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IDE for sure, but once you have the basics of the language, allocate some time to learn what the IDE has been doing for you.
If its been creating stubs/boilerplate stuff, then check those find out what they're doing, and why.
Also be familiar with the structure of any project files or solution files, they aren't the language but you'll likely need to change them at some point.
Taking an app that builds in the IDE and then build it yourself via the command-line tools is a good idea.
Finally learn what else the IDE can do, can it help build unit tests?, help during the design? etc
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IDE.
"Real men drive manual transmission" - Rajesh.
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The IDE solves many problems but IDE-bloat makes it tricky to master. When I search for text, I use my standalone editor, UltraEdit. Its search facilities are better then VS and I can see contexts which are much nicer to navigate than with the IDE. In short, don't be shy to use things that complement the IDE. You sometimes need more than a hammer and chisel in your toolbox.  
If there is one thing more dangerous than getting between a bear and her cubs it's getting between my wife and her chocolate.
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Thanks all for your comments, seems I'll be playing with both then!
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