Sounds to me like the issue wasn't the editor they were using. They're just prima donnas doing what prima donnas do. Surely it's more than a little silly to blame the gun when someone gets hurt or dies? As always, whose hands are the tools in?
To me, Vim or Emacs are more like a violin, and software that enforces style more like a kazoo. While some might consider the sound of the latter music, those with ears to hear - and hands to play - know better.
I'll take a developer who can create consistently beautiful code in Vim or Emacs over someone who can't be as productive without style-enforcing crutches any day.
I was referring to resumes/CVs as embodiments of appearances, although now it occurs to me that web browsers are essentially appearances portals.
I guess I'm just disappointed that the "Information Age" became mostly about titillating a mostly passive audience into drooling over screens. Whereas I had a seemingly eternal career working on what used to be called "middleware", it now seems to be impossible to get noticed without droning on about one's vast "full stack" experience, which on closer examination seems to be mostly about ADHD-like rushes from one Javascript and/or MVC framework to another - again, mostly in the service of wowing the senses of screen addicts.
I'm also kind of stunned by the seemingly universal belief that there's really that much difference between underlying tools that make machines sing, and that anyone who was ever profoundly well-versed in one set of tools couldn't quickly come up to speed on yet another syntax. That, in other words, the word 'generalist' has become a curse, while the parroting of anything ending in '.js' a red-carpet-unraveling blessing.
I suppose the increasing speed at which new screen junkie drugs must be deployed to become relevant/profitable has something to do with it.
Great discussion here, although so much of it presumes that people whose hiring prowess mistakes CV crafting skills for CS wisdom are worth working for.
Okay, I'm lucky to be at a point where I squeezed enough blood from the software development rock to carry on even if I never wrote another line of code again.
But I can hardly express how much happier I've been in a (relative to "rock star" and/or "ninja" mindsets) silly, part time "data specialist" position for a local non-profit that really needs someone who can spin useful utilities and disparate systems connectivity from any available silk (or dirty kite string) than I've ever been slaving away in the usual "headless chickens" environments managed by the usual clowns whose management training consisted of little more than proving themselves useless at software development itself - which training, of course, tends to result in the aforementioned hiring prowess to boot.
I'm fine with having bled the captains of big data and presentation (thereof) hysteria of enough resources to live the rest of my life on comfortably, and now enjoy embellishing whatever terminal window I'm inhabiting to suit my needs of the moment.
I'm happy in vi, wish I'd stuck with emacs, blah, blah. But when you can make things happen in a terminal window, does it really matter?
Personally, I'm finding a ton of joy in Lua. So clean and simple and fast and portable and easily extensible in venerable 'ole C. So much to love!
It's all poker, especially the part about not needing to have a strong hand to win. Play the game to win, your 40-year-old jack of all trades high notwithstanding. ;-)
To me, Vim or Emacs are more like a violin, and software that enforces style more like a kazoo. While some might consider the sound of the latter music, those with ears to hear - and hands to play - know better.
I'll take a developer who can create consistently beautiful code in Vim or Emacs over someone who can't be as productive without style-enforcing crutches any day.