title: Text Editors and IDEs

category: page

slug: text-editors-ides

sortorder: 0202

toc: False

sidebartitle: Text Editors & IDEs

meta: Text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) are applications for writing Python code.

Text editors and integrated development environments (IDEs) are applications

for [writing code](/learning-programming.html). These applications are the

primary user interface for developers to create their own programs.

Where will you write your code if you do not have a text editor? Your

[development environment](/development-environments.html) must include

a text editor so you can enter, edit and delete characters to create

Python applications.

Preferrably your editor will have a monospace font. It will also get out

of your way, so no "smart" correction or automatic letter capitalization.

IDEs contain text editors but many text editors, for example Notepad included

with Windows, do not include IDE features. Many text editors such as

Vim or Emacs have IDE features by default but then can be further customized

to add file trees, syntax highlighting, line numbers and syntax checking

that is commonly found in full-featured IDEs.

The following text editor implementations can be upgraded with

configurations and plugins to become full-fledged IDEs when a developer

wants that kind of functionality.

* [Vim](/vim.html)

* [Emacs](/emacs.html)

* Sublime Text

* Windows Notepad

* PyCharm by JetBrains

* Beeware

* Wing Python IDE