Comment by itronitron

I've learned two languages using just a text editor (VI or Notepad) and found that it really helped me spot typos and syntax issues early on. I keep a browser open with tabs loaded for referencing language/package docs and referencing examples. Compiler errors literally tell you where your mistakes are, which is great for learning a new language.

I definitely recommend IDEs for navigating large codebases at work, but I feel like autocomplete has gotten much worse over the past ten years, as it tends to be slower and less concise.