Introduction

An integrated development environment (IDE) or interactive development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger. Several modern IDEs integrate with Intelli-sense coding features.

Some IDEs contain a compiler, interpreter, or both, such as Microsoft Visual Studio and Eclipse; others do not, such as SharpDevelop and Lazarus. The boundary between an integrated development environment and other parts of the broader software development environment is not well-defined. Sometimes a version control system and various tools are integrated to simplify the construction of a GUI. Many modern IDEs also have a class browser, an object browser, and a class hierarchy diagram, for use with object-oriented software development.

References

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_development_environment