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Summary
IDE stands for “Integrated Development Environment.”
An IDE helps programmers create code.
This throw in of utility combines features for writing, testing, and executing programs in the same interface.
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For example, IDEs include text editors with syntax highlighting as well as features for compiling and debugging code.
What Is an IDE?
There often are some editing tools available, as well.
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Some IDEs take autocomplete a step further and will even let you automate part of the coding process.
In practice, though, the line between text editors and IDEs isn’t all that clear.
Much the same goes forGeany, which confusingly advertises as both a text editor and an IDE.
Let’s take a look at a few out there to get an idea.
Xcode
Xcodeis an IDE aimed at Apple developers.
It’s meant to be quite user-friendly and is popular among Apple-focused devs.
Jupyter Notebooks
Our last example isJupyter Notebooks, an IDE that mainly usesPythonandRto crunch numbers.
If statistics is your game, Jupyter Notebooks is what you want to use.
Should You Use an IDE?
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At a glance, IDEs seem pretty awesome, and they are.
However, they’re not tools for everybody.
Because they can do a lot, they’re pretty tough to come to grips with.
As a result, people just starting out with coding will probably not enjoy using IDEs very much.
They can be just too complicated.
