That's very macho and all, but the reductio ad absurdum is to issue the students magnetized needles, or perhaps to hold class in a butterfly farm. IMHO, a good IDE with syntax coloring is immensely helpful at catching errors early. In fact, it helps me when I'm typing without having to wait until compile time (as with strictures). Without any empirical proof I'd conjecture that when teaching newbies it has instructive value even "for noddy programs like this".