Let’s say that you have just started some degree in software development or some independant course. After couple of lectures that cover the basic concepts in a certain programming language the time has comes for you to start writing code.
Time to pick your first editor! Exiting right? There are so many IDEs and text editors online. That’s why in this article I will share what I have used and my experience with the products. If you want to know the difference between an IDE and text editor follow the link:
VS Code
VSCode (Visual Studio Code) is open source and free to download editor. It is available for MacOS, Windows and Linux. I personally have used it a bit and I can say that it is OK. The latest statistic that Stackoverflow did shows that 50.7 % of their users use VSCode.
VSCode has the option to do version control which is pretty nice and neat function if you don’t want to deal with the Terminal or CMD
There are a lot of extensions for this editor which will make your life much easier while coding. A separate article is coming for this extension.
https://code.visualstudio.com/
IntelliJ IDEA
I love all products that JetBrains offer. I am using the IntelliJ idea and WebStorm. I love both of them. IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE. It take a bit more RAM from your machine than usual but it is one of the best tools i have tried. The debugger is great, there are many plugins that will make your life easier. As I mentioned above JetBrains have several products. The best part is they keep the same layout and appearance throughout the whole range. There is theme plugins as well so you can customize even more. The other thing that I like in this is the build-in terminal. It is easy to open and close.
All JetBrains products has the option to do version control which is pretty nice and neat function if you don’t want to deal with the Terminal or CMD
If you learn the shortcuts and get use to them I think your productivity will increase. The least Android Studio is powered by JetBrains as well.
If you want the paid version and you are a student well JetBrains offer you to use the pro versions of everything for free as long as you study. I will not go into prices, you can check it by yourself. The link below will lead you to their page.
https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/
ATOM
Atom is a pretty nice text editor. It works on Windows, Linux and MacOS. It is pretty light weight from what i have noticed. It offers as usual bunch of free plugins. There is version control for all the GitHub users. And the best thing it is free. There is arduino support as well which is pretty nice if you work with hardware.
So those are my choices. There are many out there that you can try and see which one you like the most. If you want to information for a specific one please let me know and I can explain step by step or make a HOWTO video.