C++, Python, and other training - do we use an IDE
Archive - Originally posted on "The Horse's Mouth" - 2009-08-21 17:25:56 - Graham EllisA question from my inbox ... "Do you use Visual Studio, or a similar IDE". And worth a full answer, and one to be shared.
An IDE or Integrated Development Environment is a piece of software that provides the programmer with tools to manage his / her code, and to help him / her with code authoring through suggested code, templates, and a test area through which code can be written, stepped, traced, etc. |
A good question ... and something we keep under review.
On our public courses, we teach the fundamentals of programming (in any of the languages we cover) using a point and click editor rather than a full IDE ... reasons for this include:
a) We want delegates to appreciate the basics of the language without having them automatically provided by an IDE, sometimes with its own "macro" view of what should be put in (e.g. ask for a class in some IDEs / languages and you get a screenful of template!)
b) There are only a very few languages where one IDE is prevalent in the user base, and we really don't feel it would be best use of our customer's time and money to take time out from the core programming training to cover a tool which they would be less than likely to be using again later.
c) License issues / license costs where an IDE is commercial - it would make a significant price difference, or we would find ourselves tied into a vendor's program to get the IDE at low / no charge, which in many cases would oblige us to market their products.
Having said that , we are very happy for delegates to use their own laptops during our courses / connect to our network, and while they are with us, they are welcome to use their own IDE. Sometimes, that helps highlight issues / differences - only this week, it helped us identify output buffering issues from one particular IDE. And we are also very happy for delegates to download Open Source IDEs such as Eclipse onto our machines, to use / experiment with them, etc. As the tutor, I'm usually around after the course for a couple of hours, and we'll sometimes go "Off piste" and look at special libraries, IDEs, special requirements, etc. If alerted ahead of time, I can be prepared for this too.
For private courses, which are cost effective when you have a group of 4 or more delegates to be trained on the same subject at the same time, we can vary the policy / position somewhat. We do have to be careful of licensing issues, costs, etc, and also that we only take on IDE use / training within the tutor's knowledge. But we can be much more flexible.
I know your enquiry was just a short question, but it's one that deserves a longer answer.