11.2 Integrated development environment

Question 1

IDE

Answer 1

An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is software designed to make writing high-level languages more e fficient.
IDEs include tools and facilities to make the process of creating/maintaining code easier, such as:
Editor
Error diagnostics
Run-time environment
Translators

Question 2

Editor

Answer 2

An editor gives users an environment to write, edit and maintain high-level code.
Editors can provide:
Basic code formatting tools - changing the font, size of the font and making text bold etc.
Coloured keywords - using colour to make it easier to identify keywords.
Code editing - auto-completion and auto-correction of code, bracket matching and syntax check.
Commenting code - allows sections of code to be commented out easily to stop it from being run.

Question 3

Error diagnostics

Answer 3

Tools that help to identify, understand and x errors in code, such as:
Identifying errors - highlight particular areas of code or provide direct error messages where the error may have appeared e.g. indentation errors etc
Debugger - provides a ‘step through’ command which provides step by step instructions and shows what is happening to the code line by line, useful for finding logic errors.

Question 4

Run time environment

Answer 4

Gives users the ability to run and see the corresponding output of a high-level language.

Question 5

Translator

Answer 5

Built in to compile or interpret code without the need for an extra piece of software.