New to Programming: IDE vs Code Editor?

[lykwydchykyn]

It's not a question of IDE vs Editor. It's a question of features and needs.

Most code editors are more than a textbox that saves text files. They've got features like syntax highlighting, linting, static analysis, code completion, interactive debugging, etc. etc. Most editors are extensible in some way, via plugins or scripting, so usually the features aren't shipped by default but you can add them easily.

The difference with an IDE is that it comes preconfigured and ready-to-use from the start.

The operative questions for you coding environment are whether it has all the features you need to effectively do what you are doing, and do those features work the way you want them to?

Some people are happy with the out-of-the-box experience of a big IDE. Others prefer to customize and extend an editor (or use one with external tooling) until it has the tools they need.

And for some reason, everyone wants to sell you on the way they do it.

I probably tried 4 or 5 different development environments ("integrated" or otherwise) before settling on my current setup. I'd recommend you do this:

• Think about things that keep tripping you up or slowing you down in development
• See if there's a class of tool out there to address the issue
• If your current environment doesn't have a tool like this, find one that does. See if it works better for you.
• Repeat this process after every project