It appears to me these days, that in industry people use software tools such as VS.NET and others to create software, while in many academic instutions in the fields of Computer Science and equivalent. Students learn hardcore programming and use tools such as emacs …etc. As well as lecturers emphasising that we need to know how to program …etc and have good low level technical knowledge and so on. However tools like VS.NET …etc help make people more productive.
My conclusion from all of this. I think today’s people in the technology industry that use IDE’s are probably– Smarter Developers – as they do thingsin a more productive way–but possiblyDumber Programmers than the people who started programming in the 60’s …