What is Integrated Development Environment and its uses? | What is IDE and what are its features? | What is IDE with an example?

Introduction to Integrated Development Environment – Integrated Development Environment is a type of computer software that helps computer programs to develop software. An integrated development environment includes a source code editor, compiler and interpreter, build automation tools, and a debugger. In addition to this, tools are also available for building graphical user interfaces.

Many modern integrated development environments also have class browsers, object browsers, etc. In this article, you have been told about Visual Studio Integrated Environment.

Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment | Integrated Development Environment

All Visual Studio member products use the same integrated development environment. The integrated development environment is made up of several components such as Menubar, standard toolbar, solution explorer, properties window, server explorer, toolbox, and many other tool windows. These windows are docked on the left, top, or bottom or are hidden. Variations are possible in the IDE’s tool windows, menus and toolbars as they can be different for different types of projects.

For example, the menus, standard toolbars, etc., available when working on a Windows user interface application will be different from the menus, standard toolbars, etc., available when creating a console user interface application. The location of tool windows and other components in your Visual Studio IDE may also change depending on the customizations you have made.

Start Page

The start page is like the cover page of a book for Visual Studio. The first screen you see when you open Visual Studio is the Start page. With the help of this page, you can create a new project and access the old project. On this page, you can get basic help related to Veenbeen dot net. On this page, you can find information about upcoming Microsoft products and conferences.

You can see the latest information related to application development on this page. Except for creating new projects and opening old projects, it is necessary that you are connected to the Internet. You can also customize this page if you want.

1- Displaying the Start Page – The start page, as already mentioned, is what you see when you open Visual Studio. However, you can display the start page whenever you want. To display it at any time, do this → Click View menu. Point to Other Windows and select Start Page.

2- Elements of the Start Page – There are four major elements in the start page, which are as follows –

• Recent Projects – In this section, a list of projects which have been worked on recently is displayed. Here you can create new projects as well as open old projects.
• Getting Started – This section displays a list of help tutorials, websites, technical articles, and other information resources that may be of great benefit to you in increasing your productivity. Along with this, we also tell about the main features of the product. The content displayed in it depends on the settings made by you.
• Visual Studio Headlines – Displays links to Microsoft product and program information.
• Visual Studio Developer News – By default, displays a list of articles from Microsoft within a time interval that you specify, selecting which articles you can read. You can make these settings by selecting Tools Options to reveal the Options dialog box. And select Startup inside Environment Help. And select the desired URL in the Start Page news channel textbox in the right section of the screen. If Startup is not available in your Options dialog, mark the Show all settings check box just below the dialog box.

Form Designer

Forms are the basic part of your application. With its help, you create the user interface of your application. The form designer is a component of your integrated development environment that helps you create the graphical user interface of an application. You create the windows included in your application with the help of the form designer. It is a foundation for building Windows applications in Visual Studio. From here you start the development of the Windows application.

Code Editor

A code editor is the word processor of an integrated development environment. We use it to edit the source code. You can open more than one code editor to view the code of different forms or modules and can also copy and paste their code from one code editor to another code editor. There are several ways to open the code editor.

You can also open the code editor from solution explorer. To do this, select the form or module from the solution explorer. Then, click the View Code button on its toolbar or double-click that form or module. Or right-click the form or module and click View Code from the shortcut menu.

The code editor can also be opened by the form designer by double-clicking the form or any of its controls. Or you can open it by selecting View and Code from the menu bar. The keyboard shortcut for the code editor is F7. You can also open the code editor by pressing the F7 function key. This will open the code editor for the selected/active form or module.

Benefits of Code Editor

(i) The code editor makes it easy to access properties, methods, and events at design time.

(ii) Code editor provides you intellisense feature which helps you to complete your statement.

(iii) The code can be collapsed and expanded in the code editor. As a result, the code becomes easier to view.

(iv) Code editor provides you code snippet inserter with the help of which you add a block of code to your program.

Main Parts of Code Editor – The main parts of the code editor are as follows-

1. Code Pane – This is the area of the code editor where the code is displayed for editing.

2. Indicator Margin – There is a gray column on the left side of the code editor where breakpoints, bookmarks, and shortcuts are available. You can set a breakpoint on a line of code by clicking in this area.

3. Selection Margin -This column is the picture that is between the indicator margin and the editing picture. Code changes are tracked here. If Track Chainways is checked in the General section of the text editor in your Options dialog box.

4. Horizontal and Vertical Scroll Bars – With the help of these scrollbars, you can see the invisible code above and below the code pane.

Properties Window

Properties window is basically used to view and change properties and events of the selected object at design time. The Properties window is used to edit and view the properties of files, projects, and solutions.

The Properties window displays a variety of editing fields as required for a particular property. These edit fields can be edit boxes, drop-down lists, or links to custom editor dialog boxes. Properties that are lightly colored are read-only. They cannot be edited. There is a toolbar at the top of the properties window. Its various tools are discussed below.

• Object name: Here the name of the selected object and the list of objects are displayed. Here only the objects of the active code editor and the form designer are visible. When you select multiple objects at once, only properties similar to those objects are visible here and nothing is visible here.
• Categorized: Lists all the properties of the selected object and their values in categories. You can also collapse a category by clicking the plus sign to reduce the number of visible properties. Category names are in alphabetical order. When a category is collapsed it has a plus sign (+) on the right and a minus sign (-) on the left if all properties of the category are visible.
• Alphabetic: Sorts all design time properties and events of the selected object in alphabetical order.
• Properties: Displays the properties of the object. Events for many objects can also be viewed from the Properties window.
• Events: Displays the events of the object.
• Property Pages: It displays the Property Pages dialog box or Project Designer for the selected item. It displays the subset and superset of properties available in the properties window. Using this button you can view or edit properties related to the active configuration of your project.
• Description Pane: Here the type of property and a brief description about it appears. You can display or hide the details displayed by the property. To do this right-click in the Properties window and click on Description from the shortcut menu. If the check mark is on the left side of the description, then it is selected.

The Toolbox

The Toolbox is the most widely used part of the Integrated Development Environment for graphical user interface applications. The Toolbox usually appears on the left side of the Visual Studio window. There are many tabs like All Windows Forms, Common Controls, Conatiners, Menus & Toolbars, Data, Components, Printing, Dialogs, Crystal Reports and General and inside each tab there are controls and components for you to work.

But the controls which are mostly used are found in All Windows Forms. However, controls available in other tabs are often needed as well.

If the Toolbox is not visible on your screen, to display it do the following –

• Click View menu and select Toolbox.
• Or the Toolbox button from the Standard toolbar. Choose.
• Or, press Ctrl + ALT + X from the keyboard.

Menu Bar

The menu bar is an integral part of the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment, like any GraphQL user interface integrated development environment. One feature of the menu bar is that the menu and sub-menu in it keep changing according to your requirement.

Object Browser

With the help of the object browser, you can select the symbols available for use in the project. and can check them. To open the object browser, do this –

• Click View menu and select Object Browser.
• Alternatively, click the Object Browser button from the Standard toolbar.
• Or else, press F2.

The Object Browser has three panes. On its left side is the object pane and on the right side the top pane is the member pane and on the bottom right side is the description pane. If you do the object browser in a single column, the object is at the top, the member’s pane is in the middle, and the description pane is at the bottom.

Icons in the Objects pane identify hierarchical structures such as the Dot Net Framework, COM components, namespaces, type libraries, enums, and classes. You can expand these structures by listing their members in order.

can see. The members’ pane displays properties, methods, events, variables, constants, etc. A description of the selected item appears in the Description pane.

Server Explorer

Server Explorer is used to view and work with data links, database connections, and system resources available on servers in your network. You can open data connections using Server Explorer. Connect to other servers and view their event logs, message queues (queues), performance services, in addition to their database and system services. Can establish connections with other databases and SQL servers. Database can store projects and references. Beyond that, you can do a lot more with Server Explorer.

Solution Explorer

Solutions and projects contain references, data collections, folders and files that you may need in your application. A solution container can contain more than one project, and a project container can typically contain more than one item, such as a form.

The solution explorer displays solutions and their projects and the items (components) of those projects. With the solution explorer, you can open and edit files, add new files to the project, and view the properties of solution projects and items.

Error List

The error list is a very important feature of this Integrated Development Environment. It accelerates your application development. The error list displays errors, warnings, and messages that occur during compilation and editing of code. Additionally, with its help, you can find syntax errors.

In addition to these errors, the error list also displays deployment errors and certain types of static analysis errors. You can go to the place where the error is by double-clicking on the errors shown in it and there can fix it. As soon as you correct the error, it disappears from the error list.

To display the error list window, do this –

Click the View menu and select Error List. Or, first press Ctrl + W , and then press CTRL + E . The error list window will appear only when both are pressed one after the other. Alternatively, click the Error List button from the Standard toolbar.

To display the errors, warnings, and messages shown in the error list in alphabetical order based on a particular column, right-click in the error list and point to SortBy and select the column by which you want to sort it alphabetically.

In this way, you can also hide any one column or more than one column in the error list. For this point Show Columns and click on the name of that column if it is checked. Checked means that the column header is visible. To bring it back, repeat the same process.

How do you change your settings? – All dialog boxes and menu commands may differ slightly from the dialog boxes and menu commands shown on your system, although there is no major change. To change your settings, select Import and Export Settings from the Tools menu and follow the instructions in the wizard.

1- Various components of the error list window – At the top of the error list window there are three tabs named Errors, Warnings, and Messages. The Errors tab shows the number of errors. You can view the errors by clicking this tab. The number of warnings is displayed in the Warnings tab. By clicking on it you can see all the warnings. The Messages tab shows the number of messages. By clicking on it you can view the messages.

The error list has seven column headers. Their details are as follows-

• Category: This column contains icons that symbolically indicate its type.
• Default Order: It shows the order in which errors, warnings, and messages are generated.
• Description: The text of the error, warning and message along with its description appears inside this column header.
• File: The name of the file and its complete path appear inside this column header.
• Line: It appears on which line number of the code is the problem.
• Column: It tells from which column number of the line number the problem starts.
• Project: Indicates the name of the project.

Class View

The class view shows the pointers that are defined, referenced, or called in the application you are developing. Its indications would also be the same as you have seen in the object browser window. There are two panes in this window. The top pane is the Objects pane and the bottom pane is the Members pane. The Object pane contains an expandable tree of symbols whose first node represents the project. To develop a node, click on the plus (+) symbol or select it and press the plus (+) key on the keyboard.

The icon refers to the hierarchical structures associated with your project, which can include namespaces, types, interfaces, enums, and classes. You can expand these structures and list their members. Properties, Naved, Events, Variables, Constants, and other items appear in the Members pane.

To open it you can: – Click the View menu and point to Other Windows and select Class View. Or medicine from the CTRL+Shift+C keyboard.

Command Window

The command window is used to directly execute commands and their aliases within the Visual Studio integrated development environment. With the help of this, you can also execute those commands of menu command which are not visible in any menu. To display the command window – Click the View menu and point to Other Windows and then select Command Window. Or, CTR + ALT + A Medicines from the keyboard.

For example the following command Debug.print (10+15) returns 25 in the command window.

Immediate Window

The intermediate window is used to debug and evaluate expressions, print values of variables, and execute statements. You can run a piece of code or check a variable or expression using the Immediate window by putting the program in break mode. For example suppose you are running a program and due to some empty variable, a run time error occurs in your program.

In this case, you can assign a value to that variable with the help of the intermediate window and then see the result of the rest of the program. You can type and execute code in the Immediate window, just like in the code editor. To find out a variable or expression, first type question mark (?) and then type that variable or expression and press Enter. You will get its result in the next line.

Example – Write a console application that converts distance input into speed. In this, you have to assign values to variables during program execution through the intermediate window.

Solution :

• Click on the File menu and select New Project.
• After the New Project dialog box opens, click Console Application in the Templates pane.
• Type My Projects in the Name textbox and click OK. After that, the code editor will open. Its
• Then type the following code.

Module Module1

      Sub Main ()

Dim miles as an integer

Dim hours As Integer

Dim Speed As Integer

Console.Write(“Enter the miles…”)

miles = CInt(Console.ReadLine())

Console. Write(“Enter the hours…”)

hours = CInt(Console.ReadLine())

speed = CInt (miles/hours)

Console.WriteLine(“Speed is ” & speed & ” miles/hour.”)

Console. ReadLine()

         end sub

end module

After typing the code, press the F5 key.

You will see the result in the DOS window. first, it will ask

Enter the miles… here type 120 and press Enter.

After that, it will appear on the screen –

Enter the hours… Type 0 here.

After that when you press Enter then you will see the Exception Handler dialog box Overflow Exception was unhandled. Here you will be informed about a possible error (eg you are dividing by zero). Now here you can take the help of an intermediate window to run it properly. If the Immediate window is not open, click the Debug menu, point to Windows, and select Immediate, or press CTRL+G. You do this after the immediate window opens

             , type miles

You will see that the value you typed in the output window will appear. then type this

            , hours

After that, the value given by you as 0 will appear in the immediate window on the next line. Now you enter the correct value here. To give the correct value, write

             hours = 5

Through this process, you have assigned the value 5 to the hours variable with the help of the intermediate window. Now press FS or use Debug Continue. After that, you will see in the output window that the output has appeared.

Output Window

The Output window can display status messages for many features in the integrated development environment. A toolbar appears in the Output window with the following tools and descriptions.

Show Output from: Displays one or more output panes. Several panes of information may be available, depending on which tools in the IDE have used the output window to provide messages to the user.

Find Message in Code: Moves the code inserter point to the line where a particular build error occurs.

Go to Previous Message: Focuses the build found in the Output window and moves the insertion point in the code editor to the line where a particular build error occurs.

Go to Next Message: Focuses the build found in the output window, etc., and moves the insertion point in the code editor to the line that contains the build error.

Clear All: Clears the Output pane.

Task List: With the help of a list, you can create or organize a list of programming tasks. In the task list window, you can make notes about the tasks you want to do as a user. Can create comments for lines that need to be worked on. Apart from this, messages can be divided into different categories. The Task list lists only those comments that TODO. UNDONE and HACK start with the word. So, if you are writing a comment, do not forget to write those category words.

What Did You Learn Today

• Integrated Development Environment is a type of computer software that provides software for computer programs.
• helps to develop.
• A source code editor, compiler, and interpreter build automatically in an integrated development environment
• Contains tools and a debugger. Apart from this, tools are also available for building graphical user interfaces.
• There are
• Many modern Integrated Development Environments also have class browsers, object browsers, etc.
• In this article, you have been told about Visual Studio Integrated Environment.
• The start page is like the cover page of a book for Visual Studio. When you Visual Studio
• When you open it, the first screen you see is the start page.
• With the help of the start page you can create new projects and access old projects. On the page, you can get basic help related to VB.NET. On this page, you can find information about upcoming Microsoft products and conferences.
• Click the View menu to display the start page. Point to Other Windows and select Start Page.
• Form is the basic part of your application. With its help, you create the user interface of your application.
• Code editor is the word processor of Integrated Development Environment. We use it to edit the source code.
• Code editor makes it easy to access properties, methods, and events at design time.
• Code editor provides you intelligence feature which helps you to complete your statements.
• Code can be collapsed and expanded in the code editor. As a result, the code becomes easier to view.
• Code editor provides you code snippet inserter with the help of which you add a block of code to your program.
• Properties window is used to view and change properties and events of the selected object at design time.
• Toolbox is the most widely used part of this Integrated Development Environment for graphical user interface applications. The Toolbox usually appears on the left side of the Visual Studio window.
• To display the Toolbox, press Ctrl + Alt + X on the keyboard.
• The menu bar is an integral part of the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment like any GraphQL User Interface Integrated Development Environment. One feature of the menu bar is that the menu and sub-menu in it keep changing according to your requirement.
• With the help of the object browser, you can select and check the symbols available for use in the project. Press F2 to open the Object Browser.
• The solution explorer displays solutions and their projects and the items (components) of those projects. With the solution explorer, you can open and edit files, add new files to projects, and view the properties of solutions, projects, and items.
• Server Explorer is used to view and work with data links, database connections, and system resources available on servers in your network. You can open the die connection using Server Explorer.
• Error list is a very important feature of this Integrated Development Environment. It accelerates your application development.
• The class view shows the references or called pointers defined in the application you are developing. Its pointers are also like those of the object browser window.
• The command window is used to directly execute commands and their aliases in the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment.
• The intermediate window is used to debug and evaluate expressions, print values of variables, and execute statements.
• You can run a piece of code or check a variable or expression with the help of the Immediate window by putting the program in break mode.
• The Output window can display status messages for many features in the Integrated Development Environment.
• With the help of a task list, you can create a list or organize programming tasks.