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The thing is that UNIX already has those tools--they just naturally depend on language. So, for example, Emacs has js2-mode and js2-refactor which are about as good as you can expect for JavaScript. There are also similarly capable modes for Lisp.

There are also editor-independent tools like Ensime for Scala which is basically a server that provides IDE-like tools that can be used from Emacs or Vim. Scion provides something similar for Haskell.

There are also things like CEDET for C/C++ which add very IDE-like capability to Emacs. In fact, CEDET is basically just a framework for parsing languages and using that information for things like auto-complete.

Of course, there are some languages conspicuously missing--Java and C# for example. I tried using JDEE for Java a while back and it was really bad; I've never used C# but I don't think it's well-supported either. Ironically, these are two of the languages that need an IDE the most in my experience. (And the language that needs it least--Haskell--has some support.)

So if you're doing serious Java/C# development, then you have a valid point. If you're using another language, chances are that Emacs or maybe several editors can actually support it intelligently. (Also, maybe there are options for C#/Java that I am not aware of. If so, I would appreciate being enlightened.)



Emacs != UNIX. The OP talks about awk, sed, etc.

Emacs, IMHO, is much closer to Visual Studio than to bash+vim.


I figure Emacs ⊂ Unix :)

Besides, some of the tools I listed (e.g. Scion and Ensime) are not part of Emacs but rather stand-alone IDE daemons.




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