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Discussion on: Have you ever tried any JetBrains product?

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Dave Cridland

I used PyCharm back before there was a Community Edition, and was blown away by how much more effective I was. Since then, I used IntelliJ on some Java projects, and became a full Toolbox user, so I have them all.

The key thing for me, as a polyglot developer, is being able to very rapidly dip into a new language in a largely unfamiliar language, and get some basic work done without having to spend ages learning a new IDE as well.

I'm currently routinely using PyCharm, Datagrip, WebStorm, CLion, and IntelliJ - and the Android Studio, which is IntelliJ in disguise anyway. It's great being able to switch between projects and languages without really changing working practice.

I have friends who laugh at me, and explain that they have configured VSCode, or Atom, or vim, or EMACS to do all the things that the JetBrains suite can do. But for me, they work out of the box for all the things that the free alternatives do, but without hours, if not days, of tweaking.

IntelliJ and PyCharm both have good Community (ie, free-as-in-beer) offerings, and of course Android Studio is also free. Try them - IntelliJ works with more than just Java, too - and see if they'll work for you. Get a trial for the Toolbox and work it. They're expensive tools, but for me they're vastly cheaper than the hours I save.