Hey, me to! I started with ActionScript. (Well, I've done some Pascal and QBasic before then, but that doesn't count.) I was kind of a big deal on actionscript.org, when that was a thing :D I also did some C# because of FlashDevelop (I wrote some plugins).

Also, was looking at JS/TS back in the days when I had to migrate away from AS.

> Yup, I'm pretty much working with terminal everyday,

Doing something every day doesn't mean you do it well. Apparently, in your case, you don't. Readline interface to the terminal uses the same keybindings as vanilla Emacs. You just somehow don't know it. Kind of weird, as there are hardly any keybindings to learn, and yet.

> most popular thing seems to be Vscode.

VSCode is, well, junk. And so is Linux! Popular doesn't mean it's good. In programming, it's actually rare when it's both. And people like you and me have contributed to this being the case.

You see, the difference between you and me was the stupid chance. When FlashDevelop was considering Linux support, they didn't have a good program about what to do with their text editing component (Scintilla) that was festered with p-invokes. So, in a very ambitious project I wanted to replace that component with Vim. That proved to be absurdly hard... and I quickly gave up any hope of that happening. But, I learned few things about Linux that, later, made me switch.

My first editor on Linux was Eclipse. I still used it on and off for a long time due to Flex Builder, and later Flash Builder. It sucked, especially because Adobe's support sucked, and eventually, they cut it off entirely. I was still patching the last version of Eclipse to get Flash Builder running, but, eventually, that became irrelevant.

Somewhat in parallel and increasingly more often, once I started working mostly on Linux, I switched to Vim. Ironically, because I wanted to work with Common Lisp, which is another hilarious misunderstanding story. After trying it several times and giving up, eventually, I switched to Emacs.

In my professional life, I was at that time hired by HP to work on some sort of a SAP knock-off that had its interface written in Flex. By the time the project was due, they declared to the customer they won't support Flex anymore, and switched to GWT (the Java framework that generated JavaScript). I didn't make it into the group of developers who were assigned to continue that project, however, somehow, I got reassigned to the ops team.

HP had a corporate IntelliJ license, and made use of IntelliJ products mandatory at work. My job in the ops team was to navigate the cubicles of desperate Java dummies hired into this mindless grind of Java/XML and "fix" their Maven builds. Usually, the fixing amounted to explaining to them for the zillions time the basics of using their editor -- the fabled IntelliJ IDEA. It was ridiculous how unproductive these people were with that monster of an editor. Ironically, quite a few of them would also use Notepad++ as a side hustle. But they sucked at that too.

Later on, I switched to supporting MSBuild projects in a different company, and had to battle the unimaginable stupidity of its MSVS users, who couldn't understand how their editor worked, and didn't care. It was a game shop that made games for "smart" TV, and they actually wrote them in TS.

I've seen editors like Atom or VSCode come and go. And I've seen quite a few users of those too. It's a choice for people who don't have or don't value the skill of using their editor. These people are in constant fear of the tools they use, constant anxiety about the next Git command they are going to type and how this will "ruin their day", people who don't know how to open a file without extension...

I don't work with such people anymore. Not in my day job at least. Though my wife, she has to deal with this kind of audience. And, sometimes, she has to call me to fix the problems these people create for themselves.

But, you know what served me faithfully through the years, no matter the language I used, no matter the platform, no matter how modern or archaic, no matter if in the cloud, in a crippled unter-computer, or in HPC setting, no matter if having X-server? -- And, always with great performance, and always keeping few tricks up its sleeve? -- That's right, Emacs. VSCode is so pathetically bad compared to it, it's ridiculous to even think that someone may suggest it as a hacker's tool. It's a toy "doctor set" from AliExpress in the real surgery room. Good for giggles, but that's about it.

So, back to how we contribute to the awful state of affairs in programming: we don't create a system of values based on research. We proclaim that thing X is better than Y. And sometimes also give rationalization that is complete nonsense. While we might have real experts, those aren't found in the places they should be: academia failed us -- their titles are worthless. Industry failed us -- it doesn't need quality, it ranks software success by commercial success. People like me and you may stay in the industry for decades and end up complete noobs. With the added aspect that after a long time of being a noob, even if nothing really changed the noobs start to believe themselves to be pros. And then they take to teaching others.

We belong to the wave of programmers which wiped the little accomplishment that there was there in the 70's and flooded the field with ridiculous unga-bunga nonsense that we sell as "programming". We are the lords of the flies.