but I'm still a bit confused about how people use their preferred editor as a full blown development environment.
I don't. That's the point. An "IDE" is an "Integrated Development Environment." That implies that everything you need is part of the IDE itself. If you don't use an IDE, then the editor is not a "full blown development environment.*
I use vim, but my "development environment" is Unix. Well, bash on a Linux box to be more specific. But all of the tools I need are available from the command line.
I don't. That's the point. An "IDE" is an "Integrated Development Environment." That implies that everything you need is part of the IDE itself. If you don't use an IDE, then the editor is not a "full blown development environment.*
I use vim, but my "development environment" is Unix. Well, bash on a Linux box to be more specific. But all of the tools I need are available from the command line.