Yes, I've used grep to search include directories and third-party source directories, but I've almost never needed an actual regular expression as part of the search. I *do* actually know quite a bit about regular expressions, but I've very rarely found any need to search with regular expressions while programming. For some people, a bottom up strategy is essential to how they learn. I do think there's a lot of value in the pilotError/Lee approach however. I mean unintuitive in the sense that it's not easily discoverable like todays apps are, and requires working through tutorials. Learning the Unix command line, and then a somewhat unintuitive text editor like vi(m) or emacs seems like more hurdles to introduce early on. Getting stuck and hitting roadblocks right when you're first starting out can be insanely frustrating if you don't have the knowledge to figure out what you're doing wrong. There's a pretty high barrier to entry when you're trying to learn to program on your own, and I think there's an inherent value in keeping the process moving quickly to build some positive reinforcement. You certainly don't need to be a master of Xcode to make your way through many beginner books, and I don't think there's anything wrong with 'taking it on faith' that the compiler is working black magic to make your code compile, as long as people eventually go back later to learn what's really going on.

I think it's important to learn command line skills and not being dependent on Xcode, but it's something that I've gone back and learned later.

I think both approaches are valid to be honest and depends on the person.

What is the best c compiler for mac