Tools & Facilities in IDEs (OCR GCSE Computer Science)
Revision Note
Written by: Robert Hampton
Reviewed by: James Woodhouse
Tools & Facilities in IDEs
What is an IDE?
An Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is software designed to make writing high-level languages more efficient
IDEs include tools and facilities to make the process of creating/maintaining code easier, such as:
Editor
Error diagnostics
Run-time environment
Translators
Editor
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, for example 'print', 'input' and 'if' in Python
Code editing - auto-completion and auto-correction of code, bracket matching and syntax checks
Commenting code - allows sections of code to be commented out easily to stop it from being run or as comments on what the program is doing
Error-diagnostics
Tools that help to identify, understand and fix 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 - provide 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
Run-time environment
Gives users the ability to run and see the corresponding output of a high-level language
Translator
Built in to compile or interpret code without the need for an extra piece of software
Worked Example
James creates his programs using an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
Describe two tools or facilities that an IDE commonly provides [4]
How to answer this question
Name two tools or facilities
For each tool or facility, give a reason why its helpful
Answer
Editor
...to enable program code to be entered/edited
Error diagnostics/debugging
...to display information about errors (syntax/run-time) / location of errors
...suggest solutions
Run-time environment
...to enable the program to be run
...check for run-time errors / test the program
Translator / compiler / interpreter
...to convert the high-level code into machine code / low-level code / binary
...to enable code to be executed / run
Examiner Tips and Tricks
There are 4 main tools/features of an IDE you need to know.
Editor, error diagnostics, run-time environment and translator
If a question asks for 2 tools/features, do not give multiple examples from the same tool/feature, e.g. coloured keywords and commenting are both examples of the same tool/feature (editor)
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