Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

(IDE) is a software application that provides programmers and developers a comprehensive facilities to develop software. An IDE consists of source code editor, debugger and a build automation tools. IDE’s such as Microsoft Visual studio contains various other features such as a compiler, interpreter or both of them, though not every IDE is specifically designed to includes these add-ons as they are done with external software or libraries where the purpose of such an IDE for example Notepad++ is mainly there to write code or run it.

What is an IDE used for?

IDE’s are designed to provide and maximize productivity of developers by providing them with simplifies interfaces and addons that simply the workflow and help manage the codebase. They reduce setup time, increase the speed of development and its tasks, maintaining standardization and most importantly offering debugging tools to identify and rectify errors efficiently.

History

Evolution

The history of IDE’s is traced back to the earlier days of programming when most of the programming was done in low-level languages such as Machine code and assembly using a glorified macro / scripting based IDE such for example TECO, which was developed in 1962. As the times change so do the languages, hardware and software that evolve over the decades:


  1. Text Editors (1950s - 1960s)

    • Programmers used a basic text editor to write and edit code. Editors lacked advanced features and interfaces and were commonly used primarly for code entry.

  2. Command-Line Compilers (1970s)

    • Programmers started using command-line compilers. Developers would write code within text editors and have the possibility to compile the code with seperate command-line tools. Though as the process was cumbersome and tidious to use it provided a way for the future and was quite advanced for its time.

  3. Simple IDEs (1980)

    • First generation where the combination of text editor, compiler and the introduction of debugging was integrated into a single interface. For simple examples Trubo Pascal, which provided an integrated and user-friendly experience for programmers.

  4. Graphical User Interfaces (1990s)

    • The first introduction for GUIs, IDEs became sophisticated and providing a better organized and feature rich development interface. Tools such as Borland Delphi and Microsoft Microsoft Visual studio, offering adnvaced debugging, design tools, and project management features. The following integrations brought its developers from a command line based IDEs to the modern interfaces we use now.

  5. Web-Based IDEs & Open-Source (2000s)

    • The immense growth of the internet and expansion of the people connected through it additionally open source software led to the development of web-based IDEs such as Eclipse and NetBeans. One of the most segnificant era which started the Open-Source communities immensly and contributed to the evolution and expansion of such tools.

  6. Modern IDEs (2010-Present)

    • In the current era IDEs are the core of most of the development offering various tools, expansions and addons ranging from debuggers, compilers, editors and organization with cross-platform support and cloud integration. The following tools incoroprate advanced features such as Real-Time collaboration, Artificial intelligance drive code do help you with the code with various costomization options to suit your needs. Tools listed and related to the following chapters are here to talk further about them make sure to read the Table of Contents.

Key features (Modern IDEs)

  1. Source Code Editor

    • Synstax Highlighting: Makes code readable by introducing indintation and color-coding to language constructs.
    • Code Folding: Allows collapsing and expanding sections of the code to see what is important ignoring the rest of the code.

  2. Build Automation

    • Integrated Build Tools: Maven, Gradle, built-in compilers & more.
    • Continuous integration: Support for CI tools like Travis CI use to test software.

  3. Debugging

    • BreakPoints: Specifies an area by the developer to pause at a specific point in code or pause execution of it.
    • Step through code: Enables to execute code line-by-line in order to examine the logic flow and state of the codebase.

  4. Refactoring

    • Automatic Refactoring: Tools to rename variables, extract methods and fix area of code without changing its external behaviour.
    • Code Analysis: Static code analysis to find and fix potential issues.

  5. IntelliSense

    • Auto-Completion: Suggestions to complete line or lines of code as you type them.
    • Find References: Locate all references to a piece of code.

  6. Integrated Version Control

    • Git: Interface for version control, commits, branches and merging.


The following should give you the basic outline for the discussion of next chapters, make sure to check Table of Contents at the bottom of the page to read more about the IDEs mentioned here.

Table of contents

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Last Modified: Thursday, 18 July 2024 02:02:21

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