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- In my opinion, there is no such one tool that will fit all your needs (normally I am using like5 different tools at the same time to be able to do my job easily).
- Ideally you need an IDE that
1- Has all the stuff "Jim Jacob" has listed in his answer.
2- You need a tool that is able to open large files. eg. if you get to a situation where you need to look at very large json files. I never had any IDE like Eclipse or NetBeans work with those. However, the simple Notepad++ does work pretty well.
3- While Eclipse and other IDEs will normally have a good file compare utility, you may sometimes need some more advanced compare tool like "Beyond Compare" that can give you more control and features.
4- You will need a tool that supports "Macros" this will really make your life easy. Notepad++ works pretty well here too.
5- There are many many other things that you may need to do within your IDE like querying DB, testing an external service url and so on. While some commercial IDEs tend to have and cover most of the things someone may need, you still can find other open source equivalents that can do the job with little extra effort.
- This is just my experience with the stuff, I may be wrong and there might be a single IDE out there that supports all these features. I doubt though.
First, the objective of a development environment is to increase programmer productivity by automating some of the activities and simplifying operations, they also aim to improve the quality of the documentation related to the software building so for me if:
- I develop apllication .NET, I use Microsoft Visual Studio (.NET)
- I program with Java, Eclipse or NetBeans are used
- I created a website, I use Notepad ++
I would love to see following features before choosing IDE:
- How much it is Language supported?
- How much search is easy in source files?
- How much debugging is easy?
- How much it helps me in development.
First of all, the IDE you need to use is determined by the programming language. For example:
- If you are using Java, you may consider NetBeans IDE or Eclipse.
- If you are using C#, Visual basic, Visual studio will be the best fit.
To choose among IDEs, see the below qualities:
The best IDE is the one you're used to, as usually features offered by other IDEs are not worth the hassle of migration
If this is your first IDE then I think you better go for open source, like Eclipse or NetBeans... Unless you have the luxury to go for more expensive options like Rational, which would definetly increase your productivity
1 . Ease of use, including navigation, debugging, auto-completion, prediction etc.
2. Support for third-party plugins
3. Availability - freeware or licensed.
Hi Rahaf,
IDEs usually comes down to personal preference first and foremost and second to the nature of work you are doing. If you are developing an application for Microsoft Windows for example, Microsoft Visual Studio will be catered to you because it will offer you many project management tools that will fit that specific circumstance.
Overall an IDE needs to have a few key features such as the ability to access APIs/Libraries of whatever language you are using to develop with so that you can quickly look up method/function implementations and figure out what is the best function to use for a specific situation. A debugger is key to any IDE, Eclipse for example is a great IDE because it has a built in debugger that allows you to set breakpoints and step through your code to find errors and those annoying code breakers.
Finally, functionality in terms of comment and indentation as well as version control could be an added bonus when you are working with a team of developers.
Here are some IDE's I like to use:
Web Development: Bracekts
Web Applications: Microsoft Visual Studio, Eclipse
SQL and Oracle: Notepad++
Happy coding!
if you are developing software using VB,C#, C++, ASP.NET, the best IDE is Visual Studio.
