Not really. If your IDE vanishes then, with a little effort, you can
transfer your source code to punched cards and run it on any platform
that supports Java and has appropriate hardware. Meanwhile you can
enjoy the huge gains that a modern IDE provides. It only requires that
the project team agree on some standard software. That software will
range from source code control to 4GL development tools and an IDE is
a convenient way of integrating them.
Any modern IDE should NOT add non standard files that the project
depends on (all other IDEs whether or not they call themselves modern
or not are not modern). And has been said before in the thread: the
build process should be totally IDE independant, for example Ant based
(even though most modern IDEs can call any build program from within).
The only two modern IDEs I have found and used are Eclipse (free) and
IDEA (commercial) all I have tried others tend to try to make the user
dependent on it. Both are good, but if you have the money I would
recommend IDEA.
And the crap about 3GL and 4GL belong to the 80:ies (maybe early
90:ies) A good IDE helps the developer and does not hide the details
from him/her.
just my 2 cents