Setup A Coding Environment

Prerequisites- Introduction to Coding

Integrated Development Environments (IDEs)

Although code can be written anywhere (even with pen and paper), developers typically write code in a tool called an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). IDEs provide a lot of benefits like code interpretation, debugging, autocomplete, and compile capabilities.

Standard coding for iOS requires Xcode, Visual Studio is helpful for making Windows applications, and QT can be used to make cross-platform applications for Windows, Mac, Linux, and more. These IDEs support many different programming languages for different use cases. Some of these IDEs cost thousands of dollars per year.

Visual Studio: IDE and Code Editor for Software Developers and Teams

Visual Studio dev tools & services make app development easy for any developer, on any platform & language. Develop with our code editor or IDE anywhere for free.

Visual Studio[...]

Xcode 15 - Apple Developer

Xcode 15 includes everything you need to develop, test, and distribute apps across all Apple platforms.

Apple Developer

Qt | Tools for Each Stage of Software Development Lifecycle

All the essential tools for all stages of Software Development Lifecycle: planning, design, development, testing, and deployment.

The Future of Digital ExperiencesAll the tools you need for creating software applications or embedded devices, from planning and design to development, testing, and future-proofing your products.

Mechatronics engineers often find themselves working on a ton of different platforms (embedded, desktop, mobile, etc.) needing basic proficiency in many different languages. Visual Studio Code is a free and extensible open-source text editor that has become a very powerful IDE.

Visual Studio Code - Code Editing. Redefined

Visual Studio Code is a code editor redefined and optimized for building and debugging modern web and cloud applications. Visual Studio Code is free and available on your favorite platform - Linux, macOS, and Windows.

MicrosoftMicrosoft

I recommend installing and using Visual Studio Code (follow the above link) unless you need to build for a very specific target that Visual Studio Code cannot build for. Even so, being comfortable in Visual Studio Code means that you will be productive in a universal coding environment and can limit the use of specialized IDEs only to actually compiling a program.

Don't confuse Visual Studio Code with Visual Studio. These are two completely different platforms: