ICS 121: IDEs and Language Choice

IDEs are the tools that developers use each day to edit, compile, and debug code.
Features of integrated development environments
- Language-sensitive text editor: syntax coloring, immediate detection of simple errors, automatic completion, easy browsing of related code, easy browsing of related documentation
- Automated build system: compiles the program (more on this later)
- Debugger: breakpoints, inspect variable values, step through code, debug remote programs
- Code generation: wizards, GUI builders
- Utilities and specialized editors: graphics, resource bundles, packaging tools, deployment, etc.
- Built-in version control client
- Some now have built-in refactoring commands
- Some have integration with UML tools
- Some have integration with automated testing tools or device simulators
Since IDEs have language-specific features, usually each IDE only supports one or a few languages.
Examples: MS Visual Studio, Eclipse/Websphere, Netbeans/Forte, JBuilder, Xcode, CodeWarrior, etc.

There are hundreds of programming languages
- They have been invented to serve different purposes: different application domains or solution domains
- Often a language expresses a philosophy of development
- Old languages never die, they just fade... slowly. There is still a HUGE amount of COBOL and FORTRAN code
Characteristics to consider when choosing a language
- Familiarity of your team with that language
- Similarity to other languages you know
- Availability of documentation
- Availability of new developers with appropriate skills
- Tool support: power, scalability, available choices
- Available libraries that suit your needs
- Expressiveness
- Readability, maintainability
- Scalability to large amounts of code
- Interoperability with code in other languages
- Performance
- Programming paradigm (rarely needs to be considered)

When to choose a language:
- Usually, the choice for the implementation language of the main product is already assumed
- Every few years, new languages are introduced and teams can carefully consider changing, but it rarely happens
- Products often use more than one language: front end vs. business logic, client vs. server, plug-ins, end-user scripting, etc.
- There can be a lot of supporting code that is not in the main application: e.g., installers, testing scripts, deployment automation
The most important things to look for:
- Suitability for your purpose
- Expected productivity: writing, testing, debugging, reading, reusing
- Availability of trained staff, tools, and libraries
- Future prospects for the popularity of this language