>I don't think using all of the tools available means you're weak.
I believe Infarction was being sarcastic.

I don't feel that I really got comfortable with C++ until I ditched visual studio and used a text editor.

Ditto for me with C. On the other hand, with Java and C#, I always preferred an IDE.

Ok, i change my mind, i use my JCreator now..=/

Ah, well.

It has been awhile but I started to use JCreator and it is pretty nice. It is much better than the IDE I used in python. The only annoying thing about it is if i want to run a file of some sorts it will only let me run one at a time. It is very inconvenient to have to close the file window every time you are done to open a new one.

IDEs hamper learning. Most people using them to learn a language end up learning the IDE instead of the language and get into serious trouble as soon as they're presented with a situation where they don't have access to that specific IDE.

if they are serious about learning the language and don't want an easy fix by it doing it for them, but do like certain features of an IDE than there is no reason why IDE's hamper leaning. Highlighting of key words helps you recognize them and learn them better. Showing you errors helps you learn to recognize them better. An IDE is very beneficial to learning.