Do professional programmers use IDEs (Integrated development environment)?

Question

I’m a beginner, I have about one year experience with C++ and Python. I can’t find an easy way to create programs; I find it tedious to create Exe. (Executable programs) , and GUIs (graphic user interfaces).
I’m sure professionals don’t go through all the trouble to download extensions and other software just to create an exe.
Do IDEs make it easy to develop software? I’m willing to pay.

Answer 1

Actually, the answer is "NO". At least in software companies who take their work seriously.

IDEs do "things" for you, the way they have programmed to do. The problem is that it LIMITS the freedom of programmers to standard procedures which are not, necessarely, those the programmer wants to achieve their targets.

Like a C compiler generating masses of code in assembler, the resulting code is FAR from being efficient! (a C compiled source generates an assembler code about 6 times LARGER than the very same code written directly in Assembler, and, of course, six times slower).

So, no, professionals with experience by-pass the IDEs.

However, since the majority of programmers are mediocre, IDEs are a sufficient solution to build the majority of crappy software.

But never think that a piece of software that is SENSITIVE (hospitals, security, military, aviation, banking and so-on) will be written by beginners using IDEs!

As a small story: we developed a totalisator for greyhound racing, and we used the IDE (C) for the initial stages of development (5 programmers). After one month of total confusion, the IDE was scrapped, and we wrote the whole program with a plain text editor. The job went smoothly, very fast, and was pretty enhoyable! I think that if 5 collegues, professional programmers, concurred to scrap the IDE, they had a pretty good reason!

Later on, in my own software company, IDEs were used at start, to understand the principles of the compilers, but very soon scrapped to be replaced by plain text editors and command lines.

Further even, working as a consultant for the Military, I re-wrote, in Assembler, the code for a remote controller for a drone. The reason? The code generated by the C compiler would not fit the memory available in the controller (12Mb). The re-write used on 2Mb of assembler, and we were able to add MANY features, that would have been impossible should we have kept the C compiler.

Many more examples in my life...

And other very typical example of "IDE" is Dreamweaver... Look at the code generated: it is the CRAPPIEST you can EVER FIND! (And totally unmaintainable, and incapable on dealing with anycomplex interactive functions)

Answer 2

Most professionals do use IDEs. There are special build utilities that allow companies to distribute the compile process among different machines (very complex programs can take hours or even days to compile on one machine).



IDEs can make things a lot easier, e.g. VS allows you to create property sheets that each project can inherit from, or you can make new project templates. Once the project structure is set up, then it is usually just a right-click to add a new file to the project and you can hit compile and run it immediately. There's also the possibility to debug your program from within the IDE.



VS solutions can be build from the command line using MSBuild and most other IDEs have either similar options or allow you to use your own build scripts. I once worked with Eclipse + ANT on a private C++ project, worked like a charm. Because the ANT scripts searched recursively through the subdirectories adding a file to a project was just a matter of placing it in the source directory.



There are many decent free IDEs, my personal favorites are VS 2012 Express and Eclipse (for its awesome revision control integration).

Answer 3

IDE purely is a equipment of a editor, compiler, debugger and GUI with which you would be able to enhance utility or any utility making the s/w progression elementary. An integrated progression environment (IDE) is a programming environment. Notepad is purely an editor. you have lot greater desirable than purely an editor for s/w progression. Having a GUI and debugger makes your job elementary and time saving.

Answer 4

Yes. QT Creator on Mac or Netbeans on Windows, for C++

Here is a link to Python IDE's with integrated GUI's: http://wiki.python.org/moin/IntegratedDevelopmentEnvironments

Answer 5

Yes, almost all professional programmers use an IDE of some kind in their work.



Yes, IDEs make it easier to develop software. Some cost money. Many are free.

Answer 6

Some use IDEs, some use text editors, it's all about personal preference. And no, not necessarily. I, for example, feel more comfortable working with a text editor (like Emacs) and compiling with make than with any IDE, mainly because of the customizability that it provides.

Answer 7

it depends on the language, for most things in the C family (besides C lol) you will normally use an IDE for most other thingsit's optional