Choosing an Editor or IDE Without the Holy War
The best editor is the one you know well. Still, the difference between a plain editor and a full IDE is worth understanding.
What an IDE adds
An integrated development environment bundles an editor with tools such as a debugger, build integration, refactoring and code navigation. A lightweight editor does less out of the box and relies on extensions.
How to choose
- Large, strongly typed codebases benefit most from a full IDE's navigation and refactoring.
- Scripts, configuration and quick edits are often faster in a lighter editor.
- Your team's existing setup matters: shared settings reduce friction.
Learn the few features that matter
- Go to definition and find all references.
- Rename a symbol across the project.
- Multi-cursor editing.
- The built-in terminal and debugger.
Be careful with extensions
Extensions run code on your machine with access to your files. Install from reputable publishers, keep the list short and remove what you do not use.
last updated 2026-10-20