Do you draw a distinction between text editors and IDEs?

Question

I've seen several responses to questions asking for IDEs where text editors were suggested and vice-versa. That makes me think that people treat them as the same thing, where I draw clear distinctions.

1. How do you define "text editor" and "IDE"?
2. Do you see a difference between the two tools?

Note that I accepted an answer which I think best addressed the concepts of "text editor" and "IDE". However, it's just my personal opinion of what best addresses the question and I will continue to check in on this question from time to time to see if there's a better answer and I will accept that one.

Answer 1

The confusion arises from the fact that a text editor is a core component of every IDE. But, an IDE has much more than just a text editor; it also has interfaces to compilers, debuggers, profilers, reference material, and more.

Many text editors have plugins or other flexible extension mechanisms, often including the ability to "wrap" external tools like those I mentioned above. The key difference, IMHO, is the "I" in IDE - integrated. An IDE is (again, IMHO) something that's purposefully designed to support a specific set of tools, one of which is a text editor.

Answer 2

The obvious difference is the "I" from the IDE. IDE's are an integrated platform that allows not only editing, but debugging, file management for your project, and usually cool features like syntax highlighting and code completion. oh yeah, and integration of tools and compilers, as well as source control.

Answer 3

I do, but it's more in the way you use them than a difference in the software itself. Some software is used as an IDE by some, but a mere text editor by others. Some software can only be a text editor, some is difficult to use as only a text editor, and some can be easily used as both.

I would say that such stalwarts as Vi(m) and Emacs are used by some as text editors and some as IDEs. Things like eclipse, visual studio, etc only really make sense as IDEs and things like notepad can hardly be anything but a text editor.

I would say if you stay in your text editor to do other things - compile, debug, etc - then you're using it more like an IDE. Quite where I'd draw the line, I'm not sure.

Answer 4

To me, a text editor is light weight tool used to edit text based documents. There is no mark up or formatting of the text other than defining the "system" font for the editor. Useful tools can still be part of a text editor, like a folder tree, syntax highlighting, even cmd line execution of compilers. In the end though, all it does it allow you edit the text in a document. It will not display it to you in a different way. ie: it will not show you a grid when viewing an XML document

An IDE is much more robust and is generally specific to a language or framework.

you know, before i started writing this answer, i had a clear line between a text editor and an IDE. But now, i'm thinking they are one in the same. I mean really and IDE like VS is just a glorified text editor. And a text editor like Textpad is an IDE with a much smaller budget for development of features.

I guess the real answer is, an IDE is backed by a large company or group expanding it's features in many different directions. But a text editor is built by a small group of people, with just enough features to get by.

Answer 5

I use both and I suggest you do too. Sometimes an IDE can make development faster - like code completion and refactoring support. Fast find of files and symbols, functions, classes in project not to mention project management features. Sometimes they'll manage the build for you. Maybe it has a built in debugger (a good built in debugger is worth gold). How about code snippets and file templates. Sometimes an IDE will help you build GUI interfaces and data stores. I've seen ones that help you build regexps and run SQL queries.

These (IMO) are all sugar. I also use a plain text editor (although I really appreciate code syntax coloring nowadays) and roll most of that other stuff myself. Some of the newer text editors are creeping into IDE territory (e.g. TextMate) since they are extensible enough to allow for most of the above paragraphs niceties.

In 90% of the cases I use what I am given or what the majority of the teams uses (I am a contractor). This reduces the build conflicts that can arise if you decide to go it on your own. By learning to use IDE's, text editors and everything in between you will stay flexible and able to cope with whatever is thrown at you.

Answer 6

If you look at Kate, the text editor and Kdevelop, the IDE the main difference is that Kdevelop supports project management (CVS/Subversion) and build scripts, whereas Kate does not.

Answer 7

Personally where I think the 'line' is drawn between IDE's and Text Editors is knowledge of the end program, rather than just knowledge of it's source code.

As examples:

• Can it compile your code into a binary? It's an IDE
• Does it have an integrated debugger? It's an IDE
  • In order to have an integrated debugger it needs to know about either the binary compiled program, or in the case of scripting languages, the in-memory interpretation of the program as it runs.

Note: Things like intellisense don't rely on your code being compiled into anything, so I wouldn't say that intellisense implies IDE

Note 2: Many text editors like textmate have plugin systems which can be extended to build your project. This does not make them an IDE, as they are simply shelling out to a plugin, they don't have any knowledge about the building itself.