programming Options

[sweetxsimplicity]

What program do you use to write programs?

[*mipadi*]

Well, it depends on what "program" you are talking about.

All programs can be written with a simple text editor, such as Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac OS X, or the almighty emacs on Unix/Linux. What you do with the text file, however, depends on what "program" you wish to output:

• Programs, in the strictest sense, are executable binary files that run on a computer. They are usually written in languages such as C, C++, Java, or Objective-C, among many others. To turn a program's source code file (the text file) into an executable, a programmer uses a tool called a compiler (such as gcc for C/Objective-C, g++ for C++, and javac for Java).
• Sometimes, web scripts are erroneously referred to as "programs" (such as in this forum). Scripts, such as those written in PHP, need not be compiled; they are parsed whenever the script is requested.

Of course, one can use other beefier programs, such as Microsoft Visual Studio or Xcode, to write programs.

That explanation might be a bit complicated, so to sum it up: to write programs, you can use any text editor--that is, a program with the ability to save files as plaintext files.

What do I personally use for programming? Why, emacs of course!