read-notes-corrected

What is a text editor?

A text editor is a piece of software that you download and install on your computer, or you access online through your web browser, that allows you to write and manage text, especially the text that you write to build a web site. The text editor has to be one of the most important tools you can use as an aspiring web developer.

VS Code

Visual Studio Code is a free text editor made by the folks at Microsoft.It is available for Windows computers, Mac computers and Linux computers. VS Code has the Emmet shorthand for HTML and CSS already built-in with no additional work from you at all. VS Code has everything: syntax highlighting, themes, extensions and code completion. It seems like VS Code has a very healthy following in the web developing community.

VS code

The Difference Between Text Editors and IDEs

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A text editor kind of gives away what it does in the title—it edits text. It also manages text, and manages files. I love that name “text wrangler” because in a way that’s what really a text editor does. It wrangles your text together into something meaningful.

An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is really a suite of different software all coming together. An IDE is a text editor, a file manager, a compiler, and a debugger all in one software package. You can think about an IDE very much like Microsoft Outlook. If you’ve ever used Microsoft Outlook, you would have quickly noticed that it was an email client, a calendar, a task manager, a to-do list all in one software package. Similar to how an IDE is an all-in-one software package.

While you might not be ready, or have the need to use a compiler, or a debugger when you’re just starting out in web development, you’ll get to see how an IDE operates in your text editing software. When you’re ready to use an IDE, you’ll be more confident in how to use it because you’ll already had some experience with it by using your text editor.