Beginning Programming All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4

Programming Tools

IN THIS CHAPTER

Choosing a compiler and interpreter

Using a virtual machine

Working with editors, debuggers, toolkits, and profilers

Getting a handle on source code

Creating help files

Using installers and disassemblers

The two most important tools a programmer needs are an editor and a compiler. An editor lets you type and save language commands (called the source code) in a plaintext file. (Unlike a word processor file, a plaintext file doesn’t contain any formatting, like italics or fonts.) A compiler converts your source code into machine code and stores those machine code commands in a separate file (often called an executable file). After you store your program in an executable file, you can sell and distribute that executable file to other people.

An editor and a compiler are absolutely necessary to write and distribute programs. However, most programmers ...