What is a good tool for writing code? A lot of programmers agree that a programmer should use a different IDE for different languages. You will never see a C developer using the same IDE as a Python developer. The reason for this, at least in my experience of working with different programming languages, is that you need different coding tools to write the best possible code. Some tools are complex, but can also be very powerful. Other tools are simple and may not have as many advanced features, but they can still accomplish everything their more advanced counterparts can do and more. To show you the difference and help you decide what tool will work best for your development needs we created this guide about some cool tools for writing code.
Learning how to write code is not an easy task. It takes time and practice. If you’re looking to learn more about programming concepts like variables, functions, loops, and arrays, I have a list of tools for writing code you can use.
Eclipse
Pros
- Great framework for building Java applications
- Includes plenty of debugging options
- Supports various build systems such as CMAKE
- Easy to get standard plugins from the marketplace
Cons
- It consumes a lot of RAM
- Sometimes it crashes on loading big projects
Price: Free
Platform: Linux, macOS, Windows
Eclipse is an IDE that supports an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment. Although it is primarily used for developing Java applications, you can use it to write apps in other programming languages as well (via plug-ins).
It checks compile-time errors while writing the code. And since it provides suggestions and has a great online community to help users, you can increase your pace of coding with this tool.
Eclipse manages multiple files and projects efficiently and supports a broad range of file formats with type-specific syntax formatting. It provides connectors for multiple databases and supports common DB access methods. Moreover, project integration into GIT is virtually seamless.
gedit
Pros
- The UI is clean and minimal
- Customizable theme
- Multi-monitor editing and syntax highlighting
- Available on all systems that use Gnome
- Full support for internationalized text (UTF-8)
Cons
- It misses many important features, including auto-complete for several languages
Price: Free
Platform: Linux, macOS, Windows
gedit is a lightweight yet powerful general-purpose text editor of the GNOME desktop environment. As per the philosophy of the GNOME project, it has a clean and simple GUI for editing source code and structured text like markup languages.
In addition to syntax highlighting for various programming languages, it also comes with spell checking features and all other basic options like Goto line, find and replace.
The tool could run fast on low-end PCs: it uses little memory and CPU resources while reading very large logs.
NetBeans
Pros
- Easy to use and very efficient in code development
- Supports multiple programming languages
- Includes static analysis tool and batch code analyzer
- Perfect for creating test scripts for automation testing
Cons
- Consumes more RAM as compared to other IDEs
- Sometimes it gets really slow when you compile and run programs
Price: Free
Platform: Linux, macOS, Windows
NetBeans is an open-source IDE that allows you to quickly develop mobile, desktop, and web apps with Java, C/C++, PHP, and more. Applications are developed from a group of modular software components called ‘modules.’
The tool doesn’t require any licensing and quite easy to work on. You can indent code effortlessly: just define rules for the indentation of code in every language, and it will follow accordingly. You can also compare code across different files to know the differences between the code of different developers.
NetBeans integrates seamlessly with several web application servers such as GlassFish and Tomcat. It also works well with version control tools like GIT.
CodeStream: Developer collaboration platform
CodeStream is a free open-source extension for VS Code, Visual Studio, and JetBrains. It supercharges development workflows by putting collaboration tools in your IDE. It supports pull requests from GitHub, BitBucket and GitLab, issue management from Jira, Trello, Asana and 9 others, and provides code discussion that ties it all together, integrated with Slack, MS Teams, email, and in-editor notifications.
Development teams can easily handle brainstorming sessions by selecting a single line of code and commenting their queries or ideas. All the conversations that have taken place throughout the development process are automatically included in the final documentation of the product. With Multiple IDE support, developers can communicate across the complete team’s IDEs. And by working across branches, conversations and code references can be kept accurate. Other advanced features are automatic git-blame and at-mentions while typing questions, one-click navigation to the code editor and more.
Features:
- Version Control
- Collaboration
- Chat (Messaging)
Pricing:
- Free
Github Copilot: Your AI Pair Programmer
GitHub Copilot is one of the best productivity tools for programmers. It is an artificial intelligence tool developed by GitHub and OpenAI to assist users of Visual Studio Code by autocompleting code. It works wherever Visual Studio Code works — on your machine or in the cloud on GitHub Codespaces. And it’s fast enough to use as you type. GitHub Copilot works with a broad set of frameworks and languages. The technical preview does especially well for Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, and Go, but it understands dozens of languages and can help you find your way around almost anything.
With GitHub Copilot, you’re always in charge. You can cycle through alternative suggestions, choose which to accept or reject, and manually edit suggested code. GitHub Copilot adapts to the edits you make, matching your coding style.
Pricing:
- Free
GDB
Released by the GNU Project in 1986, GDB is older than many of the coders who use it, but that doesn’t make it any less relevant. Unlike many of the newer debuggers, GDB allows for remote debugging. It supports 12 languages including: Ada, Assembly, C, C++, D, Fortran, Go, Objective-C, OpenCL, Modula-2, Pascal, and Rust. It also works across multiple platforms.
GDB offers four main features, including:
- Starting program and specifying problems that might affect behavior
- Making your program stop upon specified conditions
- Examining the problem after the program has stopped
- Giving you the opportunity to fix the bugs
Conclusion
Code is the foundation of every software product. As a developer, you and your team rely on code and tools to create and update your web and mobile products. Tools that support an optimal flow of writing code and debugging web and mobile applications are indispensable to high-quality software development.