What is an IDE?
IDE stands for “Integrated Development Environment”. An IDE helps programmers create code. This type of application combines functionality for writing, testing, and running programs in the same interface. For example, IDEs include text editors with syntax highlighting as well as features for compiling and debugging code.
If you've just started learning to program, you've heard of something called an IDE, a type of application used by coders. So what is an IDE, how is it different from a text editor, and when would you use it?
In this section:
What is an IDE?
IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment, and it is a type of software that helps programmers to create code. It does this by combining a number of functions into one program, allowing users to write, test, and run programs from the same place, sometimes even with a graphical user interface.
If you're just starting to code, the easiest way to explain how an IDE works is to compare it to a text editor. When you use a text editor, you enter the code in the main field, save the file, and then run it, usually via the command line.
A text editor is an important and useful tool, but it can really only do one or two things. By comparison, IDEs are Swiss army knives: they serve the purpose of a text editor, allowing you to enter code manually, but will also house a number of other features.
IDE Features
For example, almost all IDEs will highlight different parts of your code's syntax, such as giving different colors to operators and strings, which can help you visually spot syntax issues. Many IDEs also have some sort of auto-completion feature, which is handy if you repeat a lot of commands or can't find a specific term. There are often editing tools available.
Some IDEs take auto-completion even further and will even allow you to automate part of the coding process. Although this requires programming knowledge on its own, it can be a huge time saver, especially in projects that involve a lot of repetition.
Apart from writing code, IDEs can also take on a lot of the heavy lifting when it comes to compiling, testing, and debugging code. This means you can run a program in the IDE, test if it works, and then ask the program to help fix at least some of the bugs you find that way. As a result, programmers don't have to poring over lines of code every time there's a little mistake somewhere, which saves a lot of time and frustration, especially in projects. more important.
IDE vs text editors
In practice, however, the line between text editors and IDEs is not so clear. Many text editors have begun to adopt features from IDEs, such as syntax highlighting or compiling and running software from within the editor. As such, the line between the two types of programs has sometimes become blurred, especially to untrained eyes.
A good example are two darlings of the programming scene, Vim and Emacs, which are primarily text editors, but for most beginners will look more like IDEs. This is partly because they can be difficult to get started, but also because many programmers will fool them with add-ons that allow you to do much more than just type text.
The same goes for Geany, which confusingly advertises both a text editor and an IDE. It looks like a text editor, but it also automatically completes the code for you and can run it in its own compiler.
Once you know a little more about how these types of programs work, you'll quickly realize that IDEs offer so much more than text editors. Let's take a look at a few out there to get an idea.
Examples of IDEs
There are hundreds of IDEs to choose from, but for this article, we'll quickly run through three popular options to get an idea of what to expect.
Visual Studio
The first is Microsoft's Visual Studio, a very popular IDE that offers a host of tools for programmers to get all kinds of work done quickly. It supports a large number of programming languages and can be used for all kinds of applications, from mobile games to Windows applications, of course.
X-Code
Xcode is an IDE for Apple developers. Published by Apple, it is fully integrated into this ecosystem and can be used to create applications for Mac, as well as for iPhone, Apple Watch and Apple TV. It is supposed to be quite user-friendly and is popular among Apple-focused developers.
Jupyter notebooks
Our final example is Jupyter Notebooks, an IDE that primarily uses Python and R to do calculations. It's used a lot by data scientists and the like and has become famous for being beginner-friendly, even though it's aimed at a very specific type of user. If statistics are your game, Jupyter Notebooks is what you want to use.
Should you use an IDE?
At a glance, IDEs look pretty awesome, and they are. However, these are not tools for everyone. Because they can do so much, they are quite difficult to master. Also, since most users are already experienced programmers, many IDEs assume that you can already think and act like a programmer.
Therefore, people who are new to coding probably won't enjoy using IDEs very much. They may just be too complicated. Going back to an earlier analogy, it's like being given a Swiss army knife when all you have to do is peel an apple. You'll pull out all sorts of different tools before you find the one you need to get your fruit ready to eat.
Add to that the steep learning curve associated with many IDEs – and let's be honest, some advanced text editors too (you can't even quit VIM without knowing a special command) – and newbie coders would probably be better off s Stick to a simple text editor like Notepad.
If you know what you're doing, however, IDEs are a great way to do a lot more in a lot less time. If you're at a point where you're gaining confidence with coding and think you can use new tools, trying out a few IDEs can be a really good idea.
