Why does nobody talk about running code in a text editor first?

My coworker Dave told me to stop jumping straight into VS Code and just write small snippets in Notepad++ before starting a project. I thought he was being lazy, but three weeks ago I tried it with a JSON parser script and caught 4 silly syntax errors before even opening my real IDE. It forced me to think about the logic instead of relying on autocomplete to bail me out. Now I spend 10 minutes on scratch files before every new feature and it saves me way more time debugging later. Has anyone else tried this or am I just slow to the party?

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harper_gibson21mo ago

Different take here. Writing scratch files first works great for tiny scripts and one off utilities, but for real features it just adds an extra step before I can see how the code fits with the rest of the project. Most of my bugs come from how modules interact, not from basic syntax, and you can't catch those in a vacuum. Plus, modern IDEs catch syntax errors the second you type them, so spending 10 minutes hand checking that feels like going back to punch cards. Maybe it works for your brain, but I'd rather get the skeleton in the IDE and let the linter argue with me.