Honest questions: What do you consider an IDE? Do you use syntax highlighting?

I only ask because I use Sublime Text but the most I use is the file browser sidebar and syntax highlighting. I don't use any linters.

I started with Ruby on Rails and Textmate and I've never needed anything fancy, even for 500k line Rails apps.

> Honest questions: What do you consider an IDE? Do you use syntax highlighting?

I use GVIM, no plugins. syntax highlighting is fine and file browser too, but once you start getting into autocomplete and plugins that too much I think. the IDE should not be a replacement for a poorly designed language, and that's what they have become I think.

> I am old school and do not use an IDE, so for me strong typing is a must.

I, too, prefer to avoid using an IDE. I appreciate strong typing, but I certainly don't feel that loosely or untyped languages are made more difficult to use by not using an IDE.

I use GVIM without plugins. So if I want to code some Python or JavaScript, I am looking at this:

    function hello(a, b) {
        return a + b;
    }

what the hell are "a" and "b"? numbers? strings? something else? no thank you.

Oh, sure, I completely understand where you're coming from. But if I'm using an untyped language, I'm already having to keep that sort of state in my head regardless.