Vim with integrated auto-completion and linting through an external plugin
Integrated development environments are designed to maximize programmer productivity by providing tight-knit components with similaruser interfaces. IDEs present a single program in which all development is done. This program typically provides many features for authoring, modifying, compiling, deploying and debugging software. This contrasts with software development using unrelated tools, such asvi,GDB,GNU Compiler Collection, ormake.
One aim of the IDE is to reduce the configuration necessary to piece together multiple development utilities. Instead, it provides the same set of capabilities as one cohesive unit. Reducing setup time can increase developer productivity, especially in cases where learning to use the IDE is faster than manually integrating and learning all of the individual tools. Tighter integration of all development tasks has the potential to improve overall productivity beyond just helping with setup tasks. For example, code can be continuously parsed while it is being edited, providing instant feedback when syntax errors are introduced, thus allowing developers to debug code much faster and more easily with an IDE.
Some IDEs are dedicated to a specificprogramming language, allowing a feature set that most closely matches theprogramming paradigms of the language. However, there are many multiple-language IDEs.
While most modern IDEs are graphical, text-based IDEs such asTurbo Pascal were in popular use before the availability of windowing systems likeMicrosoft Windows and theX Window System (X11). They commonly use function keys orhotkeys to execute frequently used commands or macros.
GNU Emacs, an extensible editor that is commonly used as an IDE onUnix-like systems
IDEs initially became possible when developing via aconsole orterminal. Early systems could not support one, since programs were submitted to acompiler orassembler viapunched cards,paper tape, etc.Dartmouth BASIC was the first language to be created with an IDE (and was also the first to be designed for use while sitting in front of a console or terminal).[citation needed] Its IDE (part of theDartmouth Time-Sharing System) was command-based, and therefore did not look much like the menu-driven, graphical IDEs popular after the advent of thegraphical user interface. However it integrated editing, file management, compilation, debugging and execution in a manner consistent with a modern IDE.
Maestro I is a product from Softlab Munich and was the world's first integrated development environment[1] for software.Maestro I was installed for 22,000 programmers worldwide. Until 1989, 6,000 installations existed in theFederal Republic of Germany. Maestro was arguably the world leader in this field during the 1970s and 1980s. Today one of the last Maestro I can be found in the Museum of Information Technology at Arlington in Texas.
One of the first IDEs with a plug-in concept wasSoftbench. In 1995Computerwoche commented that the use of an IDE was not well received by developers since it would fence in their creativity.
The IDE editor usually providessyntax highlighting, it can show both the structures, the language keywords and the syntax errors with visually distinct colors and font effects.[3]
Code completion is anautocompletion feature in many integrated development environments (IDEs) that speeds up the process of coding applications by fixing common mistakes and suggesting lines of code. This usually happens through popups while typing, querying parameters of functions, and query hints related to syntax errors. Code completion and related tools serve as documentation and disambiguation forvariable names,functions, andmethods, usingstatic analysis.[4][5]
The feature appears in many programming environments.[6][7] Implementations include IntelliSense inVisual Studio Code. The term was originally popularized as "picklist" and some implementations still refer to it as such.[8]
IDEs may provide support for code search. Code search has two different meanings. First, it means searching for class and function declarations, usages, variable and field read/write, etc. IDEs can use different kinds of user interface for code search, for example form-based widgets[10] and natural-language based interfaces.Second, it means searching for a concrete implementation of some specified functionality.[11]
Visual programming is a usage scenario in which an IDE is generally required. Visual Basic allows users to create new applications by moving programming, building blocks, or code nodes to create flowcharts or structure diagrams that are then compiled or interpreted. These flowcharts often are based on theUnified Modeling Language.
This interface has been popularized with theLego Mindstorms system and is being actively perused by a number of companies wishing to capitalize on the power of custom browsers like those found atMozilla.KTechlab supports flowcode and is a popular open-source IDE and Simulator for developing software for microcontrollers. Visual programming is also responsible for the power ofdistributed programming (cf.LabVIEW and EICASLAB software).[clarification needed] An early visual programming system,Max, was modeled after an analogsynthesizer design and has been used to develop real-time music performance software since the 1980s. Another early example wasPrograph, adataflow-based system originally developed for theMacintosh. The graphical programming environment "GRAPE" is used to programqfix robot kits.
This approach is also used in specialist software such as Openlab,[clarification needed] where the end-users want the flexibility of a full programming language, without the traditional learning curve associated with one.
Support for alternative languages is often provided byplugins, allowing them to be installed on the same IDE at the same time. For example,Flycheck is a modern on-the-fly syntax checking extension forGNU Emacs 24 with support for 39 languages.[12] Another example is JDoodle, an online cloud-based IDE that supports 88 languages.[1]Eclipse, andNetbeans have plugins forC/C++,Ada,GNAT (for exampleAdaGIDE),Perl,Python,Ruby, andPHP, which are selected between automatically based on file extension, environment or project settings.
Unix programmers can combinecommand-linePOSIX tools into a complete development environment, capable of developing large programs such as theLinux kernel and its environment.[13] In this sense, the entire Unix system functions as an IDE.[14] The free softwareGNU toolchain (includingGNU Compiler Collection (GCC),GNU Debugger (GDB), andGNU make) is available on many platforms, including Windows.[15] The pervasive Unix philosophy of "everything is a text stream" enables developers who favorcommand-line oriented tools to use editors with support for many of the standard Unix and GNU build tools, building an IDE with programs likeEmacs[16][17][18]orVim.Data Display Debugger is intended to be an advanced graphical front-end for many text-baseddebugger standard tools. Some programmers prefer managingmakefiles and their derivatives to the similar code building tools included in a full IDE. For example, most contributors to thePostgreSQL database usemake andGDB directly to develop new features.[19] Even when building PostgreSQL forMicrosoft Windows usingVisual C++,Perl scripts are used as a replacement formake rather than relying on any IDE features.[20] Some Linux IDEs such asGeany attempt to provide a graphical front end to traditional build operations.
On the variousMicrosoft Windows platforms, command-line tools for development are seldom used. Accordingly, there are many commercial and non-commercial products. However, each has a different design commonly creating incompatibilities. Most major compiler vendors for Windows still provide free copies of their command-line tools, includingMicrosoft (Visual C++,Platform SDK,.NET Framework SDK,nmake utility).
Anonline integrated development environment, also known as a web IDE or cloud IDE, is abrowser based IDE that allows for software development or web development.[21] An online IDE can be accessed from a web browser, allowing for a portable work environment. An online IDE does not usually contain all of the same features as a traditional or desktop IDE although all of the basic IDE features, such as syntax highlighting, are typically present.
A Mobile-Based Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a software application that provides a comprehensive suite of tools for software development on mobile platforms. Unlike traditional desktop IDEs, mobile-based IDEs are designed to run on smartphones and tablets, allowing developers to write, debug, and deploy code directly from their mobile devices.
^Robbes, Romain; Lanza, Michele (2008). "How Program History Can Improve Code Completion".2008 23rd IEEE/ACM International Conference on Automated Software Engineering. pp. 317–326.doi:10.1109/ASE.2008.42.ISBN978-1-4244-2187-9.S2CID2093640.
^Rehman, Christopher Paul, Christopher R. Paul."The Linux Development Platform: Configuring, Using and Maintaining a Complete Programming Environment".2002.ISBN0-13-009115-4
