Integrated Development Environments, or IDEs, have become excessively popular among developers. They have replaced traditional text editors in large numbers for obvious reasons — they create a simple way of writing code and debugging. Here are five clear reasons for anyone to adopt the use of IDEs instead of their text editors:
1.Easy Debugging
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An IDE, in general, comes with a rich set of tools to find errors in the code even before it compiles.It has the following features to help with debugging:
i) Points out the errors in the code, making it easy for the programmer to fix them.
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ii) Lets the programmer see the context for some code after which he can also look at other source code segments in other files, in order to understand how the code being debugged is called and what it will call next.
iii) Bookmarks the code, making debugging easier.
iv) Allows to edit the code while it is running and immediately see the results of the change.
v) Allows to skip or repeat sections of the code, to see how the code will perform. This allows the testing of theoretical changes before making them.
vi)Print statements are static and they need to re-compile to get additional information if the original statements weren’t detailed enough. IDEs removes this static barrier.
vii) Some IDEs also examine memory contents in real-time.
2.Syntax Highlighting
Syntax highlighting in IDEs allow you to see certain words in a different colour, making it easy to detect them and an easy understanding of the code. An extension of syntax highlighting was called “semantic highlighting” in 2009 by David Nolden for the open-source C++ IDE KDevelop.
3.Keyboard Shortcuts
IDEs allow the shortening of the editing process with keyboard shortcuts. These shortcuts can be viewed or defined for common editor operations. There are a number of keyboard shortcuts and time-saving tricks in IDEs.
4.Tool integration
IDEs are used in development teams to build new software, apps, web pages, and services. They facilitate by providing one tool with all the features and removing the need for integration. It comes with a huge advantage of being able to integrate tools that the software created did not cover. It then allows these tools to be accessed and used. The tool integration of IDEs is very easy; it does not require the programmer to leave his IDE to perform tasks.
5.Parsing
In practical language/compiler development, IDE integration is an important part of DSL deployment. Using the parsing function, source code can be divided into sections, allowing for easy navigation between sections. It also allows for alphabetical sorting of section names. Parsing enables faster development tasks. Strong integration of all the development tasks improves developer productivity. There is then no need to switch between applications to complete tasks.
6.Unit testing
Within the IDE, grouping the tests into a unit test project can either be located in the same workspace as the application under test or can have a standalone test project. The Micro Focus Unit Testing view in IDE is the control panel one can run, debug and rerun their test cases. They are created in a special unit testing project, where they can link into other projects within the workspace. They also have an overview of the number of successful and failed test cases.
