I deal with so called professionals all the time in the work place and being polite has nothing to do with getting the work done. I'd prefer to be talked to direct with no BS. At least you know where you stand. Far too many people keep it all pretty and then stab you in the back. Say it as it is. No doubt then. If you screw up, why shouldn't you be told in no uncertain terms? You'll think twice the next time. Well played Linus.

And if you can't spell cheques .... ?

And what's wrong about having to on your A game? A good C programmer is usually a very diligent programmer. I certainly can't say the same for all the Java boys and girls (although I know there are some fantastic ones out there also).

And I really didn't mean to post anonymously :) Thankfully, I know my C a lot better.

I learnt C and unix 22 years ago and it is still earning me a living and still puts a smile on my face - and K&R is just the bible of computer books. It is disgraceful the media has just overlooked this yet gave Jobs a massive send off.

Not funny. What we really need is an approved version of MAME :)

Well, I've pretty much used every main stream IDE out there and a lot other ones to boot. Yes, I'm a big Vim fan and use it a lot but, professionally, I'd have to say slickedit is pretty damn good. Most IDE's (especially with C/C++ projects) struggle with huge code bases but slick takes it in its' stride. It's not free but you don't mind paying for something this good. Eclipse is OK with Java but even then, it's crash city and slooooow as.
I've always wanted to use KDevelop but it just grinds to a halt importing anything with over a few hundred files (I did look at the code for version 3 but it was pretty messy in there). QTCreator looks promising but is missing way too many features at the moment to be taken seriously.
I really wish slickedit did a version which was free to use for non commercial development. They may find it opens up a whole new market of opportunity.

You made my day with that comment. Still laughing ...