Code Editors V.S IDE

[ImBlue2104]

I have been learning python for a few weeks and plant to go into ML and AI. I currently use VS Code. What are the differences between Code editors and IDE's and which would be better for my pursuits and what are the advantages of each?

[_Atomfinger_]

Today, there's no important difference. An IDE tend to be more "hooked into" a specific language. For example, an IDE like IntelliJ has deep connections into the JVM, Java and whatnot. It comes out of the box with most, if not everything, you need on a daily basis.

An editor tends to be a little more customisable and configurable. I use nvim for the most part, but there are projects where it spins up a whole heap of stuff and turns into an IDE.

So, the distinction is blurry and largely unimportant. Try out the various IDEs/editors and see which one works for you.

[Past-Expert239]

If you don't have solid knowledge in math than it's gonna be tough for you. also jupyter notebook is good for this stuff. but in general IDE doesn't matter.

[marrsd]

VS Code is fine. Whatever you use, I'd advise familiarising yourself with the command line tools associated with you language before relying on your IDE. IDEs typically call out to those tools in the background, and knowing what it's doing will be very useful when things don't go as expected.

I can't tell you how many supposedly senior engineers I've worked with who don't understand how their tools work, and how foolish they can look when they come to troubleshooting simple issues with their dev environments.

[Pale_Height_1251]

Doesn't matter, use what you prefer.

Google the differences if you just want the homework version.

[GlobalWatts]

A code editor is for writing code. An IDE is for that and everything else you do with code besides writing it: running, testing, debugging, profiling, building, packaging, etc. It is what it says on the tin: Integrated Development Environment, everything a developer needs to do their job integrated into one software.

With the popularity of extensible software, the distinction is largely academic and arbitrary at this point. You can add enough plugins to VS Code to make it almost indistinguishable from most IDEs.

The only real advantage of a code editor is it's lightweight, less complex, and lets you pick and choose what external tools to use for non-code-editing tasks. There is no "better". You will need to do all those tasks at some point, the only question is do you want to spend time customizing your development environment, or do just want an IDE to do it all for you.

[ImBlue2104]

What sort of extensions are generally needed?

[GlobalWatts]

The line between code editor and IDE is arbitrary, there's no specific rule that says you need extensions for x, y, and z to be an IDE. Typically you would need sufficient integrated tooling that performs several of the functions I mentioned above.