As a newbie, we always confuse what platforms should we choose for writing our codes and execute them🤔, it may be executed in a console or onto a webpage, or anything else. As there are presented a wide range of platforms for writing the same things, but choosing one may be very time ⏳ consuming and labor taking work to do out.
We start to browse 🌐 things needed to do anything or stretch our brain 🧠 muscles to exercise thinking about what to do.
In this article, I will be discussing out what should we choose to write our codes and execute them, Stay tuned✨
Choosing the Programming language 🔠
It is one of the essential tasks for any learning coder to find out the interest of what programming language should learn🏫
Their presented wide amounts of programming languages categorized as Backend and Frontend ones.
Backend programming languages consist of languages like PHP, Ruby, Java, and many others.
Frontend programming languages consist of languages like Javascript, HTML, CSS, and many others. You have to choose the field that you are truly interested in and then move ahead to learn them with the correct dedication and goal🎯
Based on this thing we can approach our next step that is to choose a platform for practicing our codes for their execution.
What is a platform, basically? 🤷🏻♀️
A 'Platform' basically means a place where you can write, edit, format, and doing many other things (debugging, file splitting, etc) you wish to do with your codes. The platforms are basically divided into 2 types based on their features and comprehensibility with coders, these categories are IDEs and Text editors
Now the question arises, What is an IDE and a Text Editor?
📝IDE is an abbreviation for 'Integrated Development Environment'
It is a coding environment that gives developers and coders a comprehensive environment to write codes and develop an application. It is a great tool for managing the codes and execute them.
An IDE comes up with a very extensive amount of tools that help in
- Syntax Highlighting💡
- Automation Building🕹
- Version Control⚙️
- Code formatting🆎
- Completing codes📝
- Debugging🐛
- Execution of code and blocks▶
- Testing🧪
Example of some IDEs:
All are very well known IDEs and are well appreciated by developers, you can choose anyone and go on it happily
IDE stands well and fine for doing backend programming languages that need the codes to be executed in a console directly. Basically, you need to do some debugging and testings while you are writing your codes. But, there is no strict compulsion for choosing the same.
📒A Text-Editor is a simple notepad with features that are spacious and extensive than that
A Text-Editor is really a core section of software and development, programmers use it for application development. In a nutshell, think of it as a simple 'Notepad' with advanced features
It is ideally a very superb accessory for editing our source code easily and without numerous fluctuations, it can be built on to an IDE also.
It comes up with features of:
- Syntax highlighting🔆
- Formatting codes💄
- File splitting📂
- Editing🎨
- Project switch🔁
- Multiple selections🦘
- Support for cross platforms📡
Basically, these are faster in opening than IDEs, require a very minimal setup, and a sophistically lightweight.
Examples of some popularly known Text-Editors are:
All these platforms are very well appreciated by developers, you can check them out and go with that.
A Code-Editor stands sophisticated for practicing languages that don't need the execution of codes in a console, and instead, they go executed in a webpage or else. No bias for front-end or back-end languages over it, because there are some backend languages that need their codes to be executed in a webpage instead of a terminal, say PHP.
All set, what should we have in our system?💭
As we are very well versed about what an IDE and what a Text-Editor is. There may be a question arising that what should we have in our systems.
Fellow beings, It depends on the programming languages that you use, the type of features that you want from a platform, and based on your system's disk space and speed. Suppose you are practicing HTML or something like that, you don't have to have such a platform that is so heavy and has lots of features that are beyond your known. Then it is better to choose such a platform that is best suited for your developmental goals, choosing a text-editor is appropriate.
In times of opening a document of programs for a short edit, I don't think you should open it with an IDE, a text-editor comes to action at that time which gives the facility of fast opening.
IDEs are very good for doing debugging, automation building and provides many other features that a Text-Editor cannot.
IDEs are superb ideal for doing backend programming languages that need execution in a console, for instance, in Python🐍 we often need to execute our codes. The same thing cannot be easily done in Text-Editor as compared to an IDE!
There are instances when there is ideally no requirement of using an IDE at that time or a Text-Editor also, both are significantly beneficial and having their own merits and demerits.
In my opinion👍🏻, both of them should be presented on a programmer's device, because we actually don't know what might come into action at that time. These could be a combination of Komodo IDE and Sublime Text or a combination of anything else.
Good Luck, Happy learning ahead👋🏻