Learn an IDE

Dear new developer,

Just like you should learn a text editor, you should learn an integrated development environment (aka IDE). This is typically a standalone program focused on one or more programming languages. They range from free to a couple of hundred bucks in pricing.

Using an IDE will give you the following benefits:

• It will be easier to navigate a project. Typically IDEs have a tree view of the entire project. Especially if you are not familiar with the command line, having this may make it easier for you to see how pieces of the project fit together. If the language supports it, an IDE can provide powerful searching capabilities, allowing you to see where a function, method or class is used.
• Often these have refactoring support. Refactoring allows you to easily rename variables, functions/methods and files. If the language or IDE support it, references to the renamed entity can be updated as well. This will help make the code more fluid.
• Debugging and code inspecting capabilities can be very useful. You can walk through code that is running locally and see the state of variables and make function calls. This is especially helpful if you have a test that can drive the code and replicate a bug. You can also, if the language supports it, connect to remote servers. (Many languages have command line debuggers as well, but it’s usually easier for a new developer to use an IDE.)
• The IDE can provide text manipulation functionality. For instance, if you want to add documentation comments to every method, or an easy way to generate boilerplate methods, IDEs can provide this. It’s often easy to customize to your needs as well.
• Easier learning the language or framework. If you are not sure of the exact name or syntax of a library call, an IDE can suggest it (often based on you typing a few letters). The documentation is often integrated as well, so you can, for example, see the javadoc by mousing over a method call (in a Java friendly IDE).

Obviously, as you see above, an IDE is very powerful. It’s also very tied to a language and the language’s features. If you are using a dynamic language (PHP, ruby) your IDE will have different capabilities than if you are using a statically typed language (C#, Java). But in either case, mastering your IDE will make it easier to write and debug code on your development computer.

Sincerely,

Dan