Use of IDE
An Intergrated Development Environment (IDE) is a program which makes it easter for developers to develop and debug software.
Examples
- Visual Studio Code
- InteliJ
Common features
Many IDE’s come with these features:
- Runtime stepping
- Allows the developer to step trough the code line by line which can help identify where bugs are happening in the code. It can also help the developer understand what the code is doing what it is doing.
- Variable watching
- Many IDE’s allow for variables to be watched which can help the developer understand what is happening to the variables. This is often used with runtime stepping (above).
- Breakpoints
- Breakpoints allow the developer to pause the code at a specific point, this can help pinpoint where an error is happening.
- Source code editors
- Almost every IDE comes with a source code editor or a text editor of some kind to allow the developer edit the program code. Many of these editors come with features including:
- Syntax highlighting - Syntax highlighting highlights a specific syntax in a different colour to make it easier to read.
- Autocompletion - This feature allows the developer to autocomplete the word or entire line that they are typing in order to speed up the development process.
- Automatic indentation - Indentation allows the code to be kept neat and tidy.
- Almost every IDE comes with a source code editor or a text editor of some kind to allow the developer edit the program code. Many of these editors come with features including:
- Debugging tools
- Debugging tools help the developer find and fix bugs in the code. This can include breakpoints, runtime stepping and variable watching (which are mentioned above) as well as other tools.