Your dev environment matters less than you think

How do you setup your dev environment? Depending on your language there are many choices of editor, package manager, build tool, linter, on and on. And every article you find will have a different combination of suggested tools, each of which claiming that their list is The Right Way To Do Things.

So which do you choose?

The short answer: it doesn’t matter. Your choice of dev environment is meaningless.

The slightly less flippant answer is that, yes, there are some contraints on which tools you should pick, but otherwise you should just pick something and move on.

Let’s see why dev environments don’t matter that much in the end, and what limited constraints you should apply when choosing your tools.

Learning how to cook

Imagine you’re training to become a chef. You will need to learn how to use a knife correctly, to chop and dice safely and quickly.

And yes, you need a sharp knife. But when you’re starting out, it doesn’t matter which knife you use: just pick something sharp and good enough, and move on. After all, the knife is just a tool.

The people eating the food you cook don’t care about which knife you used: they care how the food tastes and looks.

After six months in the kitchen, you’ll start understanding how you personally use a knife, what cuisines you want to pursue, what techniques you want to vary. And then you’ll have the knowledge to pick a specific knife or knives exactly suited to your needs.

But remember: the people eating your food still won’t care which knife you used.

Choosing a dev environment

When you use a website, you don’t care which build tool the programmer used. When you run an app, you don’t care which editor they used. You want the software to work, to do what it says, to be easy to use, to get out of your way—and you don’t care how they did it.

And that applies just as much to the users of your code: they don’t care which tools you used.

And when you’re starting out, whether programming in general or a new language or framework, you don’t know how you will like to work. So instead of obsessing over finding the ideal development environment and toolchain, just pick tools that are good enough:

• Popular: So you can easily find help.
• Easy to get going: Your goal is ship useful code, and as a beginner time spent fiddling with your dev environment won’t help with that.

Once you have enough experience, you will start developing opinions. You might become choosy about which tools you use, or end up customizing them to your needs. You might even write an article about your particular dev environment and favorite tools.

But however strong your preferences are, chances are that given tools you don’t quite like as much, you will still do just fine. If you know what you’re doing, you can chop vegetables with any sharp knife, even if it’s not your favorite.