Why I hate Microsoft Visual Studio

1. It provides me useful, timely information about my current task
2. It makes it so I have to type less
3. It works
   

In short, because I love it. Yes that's right, I hate it because I love it. I've been using another "IDE" recently at work, and it's made me realize just how much I love Visual Studio. Before having to switch from VS, I was aware that I liked it. But the switch made me aware that my feelings for it ran much deeper.

I've never been much of a big fan of Microsoft's products. For well over a year, we only ran Linux at home. Until my current job, my code editor of choice was vim - simple, easy, and reliable. I didn't need any fancy IDE. I was a code-and-run developer (code a little then run the program - repeat ad nauseam). I was unhampered by the need for big integrated toolsets. But then I started to use VS, and it started to grow on me. At first I was confused by all the buttons, windows, dialogs, wizards, panels, etc., but felt more and more comfortable as time passed.

And then today as I talked with a co-worker that still gets to use VS, I realized that I was actually jealous of him for having such a tool at his disposal. I was a little unnerving. Every once in a while, I find that there is a thing that I have been playing with or using without much thought that I suddenly realize I love. These are things that I don't expect to have much of a hold on me when I start using them. They start out as a toy or a means to an end, but they become more than that without me even realizing it.

The last time it happened was with my homemade DVR (digital video recorder - like Tivo). I made one using an old PC on a whim and about $100. It quickly became the primary TV related device in our house until it suddenly stopped working. We survived without it for a couple of months, but we eventually gave in and got a real Tivo.

Both of the experiences were unnerving because of the hold these things had I me. I don't like when technology has its talons too deeply in me. I always like to think that I can easily cast off most of the fancy gizmos - that I can return to "simpler" times and ways. I'm not an early adopter by any means. I am generally skeptical of new gadgets, and it takes me a while to even conceive of a need for them. So loving some of them actually scares me a little.

I cannot hide from technological advances and the shiny things they produce. I will end of loving some of them because of their usefulness to me. The trick, the hard part, is to love the usefulness and not the gadget - to be able to drop it when it is no longer as useful. To love what it does and how it helps without convincing yourself of its necessity for your usefulness.