Looks like those are open problems.
Number of commits, lines of code, etc are all bad proxies (you can crank out code really fast but make it so bad that people have to go repairing what you touched ).

I found this post interesting:
http://www.webfoot.com/blog/2006/12/17/programmer-productivity-part-3/

But seriously… Are there any stats that prove that IDE-guys are worse programmers? Maybe IDE-guys just use less productive languages (java) versus script languages for the vim/emacs crowd?

On the other hand, those who use run-off-the-mill editors (read:easier than vim/emacs) don’t strike me as tremendously productive either. But my sample is pretty small. It does make sense that the hardcore programmers would gravitate towards hardcore editors. But I must admit that some situations (e.g., rails development) are just better suited towards IDEs (e.g., find usages, find definitions).

Seriously, /THAT/ is supposed to make us write better code?

I’ve spent lots of time with various IDEs over the years in a number of industry jobs, and found one pattern that keeps repeating itself: noobs and guys that aren’t very good at coding rely heavily on IDEs, while the guys who are /REALLY, REALLY GOOD/ at what they do invariably prefer vi or emacs.

Whoever it is you are quoting that thinks IDEs should be a fundamental part of “best practices” just lost all credibility.

As far as test driven development goes … well … I found a bug in an open source web framework, the maintainer asked me to go and write some tests to illustrate the bug which I did, and immediately saw the value.

Mind you for my day to day coding needs, 99% of what I do are one-shot scripts where tests are more trouble than they’re worth.

@loca,
Yes, but bad code affect researchers too! I have had requests for sources, and I had to answer “sorry, it’s in such a mess that I doubt it’d be useful for you.” And I had this same answer given to me by two researchers friends about their code just in the last month!

Plus, if the people who can apply basic research don’t because they fear the code, society overall would improve a lot slower (i.e., applied people who don’t read papers and even less academic code are condemned to reinvent the wheel).

The last argument about doing something that people actually use is very well presented in that unqualified-reservations blog post (but long! )

what’s the argument in this post? sure, code can be written more professionally — but i have another profession, which is to be a researcher. is there a real compelling argument that writing non-messy, more professional code is going to make my research better? if it simply means professional programmer will dread my code and make fun of me, seriously, who cares? here i am making fun of those ice skaters’ outfits or something and i am sure they don’t care…

Q: Why not use an integrated development environment with a symbolic debugger?
A: I use Vim because it is (AFAIK) the only editor that let me work without the need of a mouse. I hate mouse: it slows me:
http://www.academicproductivity.com/blog/2006/why-slickrun-is-the-best-thing-in-the-world-ever/
I invested time learning how to use it, and I’ll continue to use it because actually, I write faster with Vim than with any other editor. I’ve tried Eclipse, but, I think, it’s the kind of software that you love or you don’t love.

Q: Why not write unit tests?
A: What are unit tests?

Q: Why not use a version-control system?
A: Actually I do, and it’s great.