Integrated Development Environment

Anyone who makes software writes instructions in an artificial language that a computer can execute. Such instructions could theoretically be typed in a simple writing program. In practice, almost no one uses a plain text editor for this. Instead, one works in an Integrated Development Environment, or IDE for short. This is a program that combines the text for typing, the start button for trying things out, and the tools for debugging in a single window. The idea is exactly what the name describes: many individual tools under one interface.

Why hardly anyone programs without an IDE

Programming consists for the most part not of typing, but of searching. You search for the spot where something goes wrong. You search for the function that someone else wrote three months ago. An IDE knows the entire project and can answer these questions in seconds. Without it, you would have to go through thousands of files by hand.

On top of that comes error prevention. An IDE checks while you are writing whether the text even makes sense. A typo in a name is immediately underlined in red, similar to spell-check in a word processor. Errors that you catch in a second cost nothing. Finding those same errors after release can cost days and a lot of money.

Economically, this is why large companies take their developers' tools seriously. A license for a professional IDE costs, depending on the provider, a few hundred euros per year. A developer’s workstation costs many times that. If the tool saves a few percent of time, it has long since paid for itself.

The components under the surface

The most conspicuous part is the editor, i.e., the text field for the program code. It colors different elements differently and suggests suitable continuations as you type. These suggestions are called autocomplete, similar to a smartphone keyboard. The difference: the IDE knows which commands are even allowed at that particular spot.

The second component translates the text into a form that the computer can execute directly. This translator is called a compiler. It reports back which lines it does not understand, and the IDE displays these lines directly. A click on the message jumps to the corresponding spot in the text.

The third component is the debugger, the tool for finding errors. With it, you can pause a running program at any line. Then you can see which values are currently held in which variables. This is like a freeze-frame in a film: you calmly examine what is happening at that exact moment. Usually there is also a connection to a version control system, which logs all changes to the project and can restore earlier states.

From Visual Studio Code to the AI editor

The most widespread environment at present is Visual Studio Code from Microsoft. It is free and, according to Stack Overflow’s annual developer surveys, is used by clearly more than half of all respondents. For the Java programming language, IntelliJ IDEA is the standard; for apps on iPhones, it is Apple's Xcode. Strictly speaking, Visual Studio Code is a highly extensible editor and not a complete IDE. But the boundary is blurring, because almost every feature can be installed afterward.

IDEs have been appearing regularly in business news for several years now, because AI is being built into them. Tools like GitHub Copilot suggest entire paragraphs of program code right in the editor. Companies like Cursor or Windsurf have built complete development environments around this idea and achieved billion-dollar valuations as a result. The IDE has thus become the most important gateway for AI into the software industry.

Anyone who wants to get started themselves doesn’t need to make a purchasing decision. Visual Studio Code runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and is installed within a few minutes. Alternatively, some courses work with environments that run entirely in the browser. There, you don’t have to set anything up, but you are dependent on an internet connection.