List, Terms used: IDE: Integrated Development Environment CS: Computer Science IT: Information Technology
I was thinking about this for sometime now, and realized, that there wasn't any emphasis on the "tools" being used in courses (graduate, postgraduate) (CS and IT). They may not be of utmost importance, but I'll like to know your opinions and choices. 1. Most of the courses use Windows as their OS and have Notepad as the default text editor used for programming languages such as Java etc. Even for HTML, CSS etc, notepad remains the default text editor. Notepad (default) doesn't have any syntax highlighting or other options. Surprisingly, students are told they learn better, if they are not equipped with these. (Text editor features) I wonder, programmers under *nix, have Konsole ( ;) ) based text editors as well as GUI text editors (Just to differentiate for the sake of it: vim, nano and Kate, Emacs, gEdit) which provide syntax highlighting and a host of other options. Are they at a loss? 2. IDEs are great for development. Because, they hide the actual commands of compiling, interpreting / running the program. (some) They also enable the user with point-click tools and generate code for those tools / components. Surprisingly, the same students are allowed to use the Turbo C++ 3.0 (16-bit compiler) IDE with syntax highlighting for C / C++ programs and are able to write typical C / C++ programs later. The question is, are Text Editors better for students to begin programming or are IDEs better for students? (Irrespective of the language) Text Editors in Windows and GNU/Linux have capabilities that allow the process of compilation, interpretation, execution, identation, adding comments, etc. In some sense, Text Editors nearly is an IDE. -- http://www.gnu.org.in ubunturos @ freenode 5, 50, 500, 5000 - Store N number of mails in your inbox. Go to http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
