integrated development environment
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Computing: Software: Types: IDE
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is a computer program (software) designed to handle several parts of the development process more or less seamlessly in order to speed the coding-compiling-debugging process.
A typical IDE will have the following features:
- One-key compiling/building/running of source code
- Automatic de-referencing of error breakpoints (i.e. when there's an error in the code, the IDE highlights the exact line(s) which caused the error)
- Single-stepping through code, with the ability to inspect variables and determine their current value
- Syntax highlighting (i.e. different syntax elements are shown in different colors; certain unclosed paired delimiters, such as quotes, are much easier to spot)
- "Project management", i.e. the files used by a given development project are listed within the IDE and often loaded automatically
- Context-sensitive help, i.e. highlight an identifier, press the help key (usually F1) and find the documentation for that identifier
Some newer IDEs also have these features:
- Function fill-in popups which show:
- all arguments needed by a function, subroutine, or method
- which argument you are currently filling in, based on cursor position
- Listing of available fields/methods: on typing the name of an object plus the field-delimiter character (e.g. "." in VB), a list of defined fields and methods will pop up