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A programming tool or software development tool is a computer program that is used to develop another program. A tool provides a command line interface (CLI), a graphical user interface (GUI), or both. A CLI allows a tool to be used for automation such as for build or test.

In general, development tools manipulate computer files. A programmer may use a text editor or a source code editor to edit source code files. They may use a compiler to convert the source code into machine code files. They may use tools that package executable program and data files into distributable packages or install kits.

A toolchain is a set of tools that are often run in sequence such that the output of one tool is the input to the next one.

An integrated development environment (IDE), as the name implies, integrates the function of several tools into one user experience (UX). Usually, an IDE provides a code editing GUI and often provides for compiling, debugging, running tests and many other functions – as applies to the programming context.

Some tools provide productivity enhancements. Allowing the developer to perform tasks faster and/or better than without the tool. For example, profiling can be accomplished via hand-coded logging but a profiler tool might provide more detailed information with less effort.

Whether an program is considered a development tool can be subjective. For example, a compiler is clearly for development. But Windows Notepad is neither designed nor used exclusively for development yet is often used for development. A person who uses Notepad for development might consider it a development tool, but others, especially non-programmers, might not.

Programs used at runtime, such as a database engine or an interpreter, are generally not considered development tools. Such programs may be used during development but are a runtime integration instead of a tool for assisting in the development of a program.

The once notable computer-aided software engineering (CASE) initiative sought to provide tools with design aspects such as unified modeling language (UML) support. But, today, such tools are uncommon.

Uses

Translation

One classification of tools is translation – from source code to machine code. Rather than directly writing a program in machine code, a programmer writes source code in a programming language. Tools such as assemblers, compilers and linkers translate source code which is more accessible to a human to a form that is more accessible to the computer.

Some tools produce executable code that is more abstract than the native machine code. For example, C# and Java are usually translated into bytecode, and at runtime, the bytecode either is interpreted or is compiled to machine code via just-in-time compilation.

An interpreter – which is a runtime environment; arguably not a development tool – can support executing source code without translating to machine code. Some interpreter environments provide on-demand translation to machine code or an intermediate form.

Debugging

A debugger allows a programmer to extract information from a running program in terms of the source code language. The debugger, often using special debug information from the compiler, can display the value of a variable while the program is paused at a breakpoint. This and other information available via the debugger can be useful for resolving bugs, understanding how the program works and for testing.

Categorization

The following are notable categories of development tools.

• Binary compatibility analysis tools
• Bug databases: Comparison of issue tracking systems – Including bug tracking systems
• Build tools: Build automation, List of build automation software
• Call graph
• Code coverage § Software.
• Code review: List of tools for code review
• Code sharing sites: Freshmeat, Krugle, SourceForge, GitHub. See also Code search engines.
• Compilation and linking tools: GNU toolchain, gcc, Microsoft Visual Studio, CodeWarrior, Xcode, ICC
• Debuggers: Debugger#List of debuggers. See also Debugging.
• Disassemblers: Generally reverse-engineering tools.
• Documentation generators: Comparison of documentation generators, help2man, Plain Old Documentation, asciidoc
• Formal methods: Mathematical techniques for specification, development and verification
• GUI interface generators
• Library interface generators: SWIG
• Integration Tools
• Memory debuggers are frequently used in programming languages (such as C and C++) that allow manual memory management and thus the possibility of memory leaks and other problems. They are also useful to optimize efficiency of memory usage. Examples: dmalloc, Electric Fence, Insure++, Valgrind
• Parser generators: Parsing#Parser development software
• Performance analysis or profiling: List of performance analysis tools
• Revision control: List of revision control software, Comparison of revision control software
• Scripting languages: PHP, AWK, Perl, Python, REXX, Ruby, Shell, Tcl
• Search: grep, find
• Source code Clones/Duplications Finding: Duplicate code#Tools
• Source code editor
  • Text editors: List of text editors, Comparison of text editors
• Source code formatting: indent, pretty-printers, beautifiers, minifiers
• Source code generation tools: Automatic programming#Implementations
• Static code analysis: lint, List of tools for static code analysis
• Unit testing: List of unit testing frameworks

See also

• Comparison of integrated development environments – Notable software packages that are nominal IDE
• Computer aided software engineering – Domain of software toolsPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Computer science – Study of computation
• Configuration system
• List of software engineering topics – Overview of and topical guide to software engineeringPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Scripting language – Programming language designed for scripting
• Software development kit – Set of software development tools
• Software engineering – Engineering approach to software development
• Software systems – Intercommunicating software components forming part of a computer systemPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Toolkits for User Innovation – Design methodPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets
• Developer experience – Human interaction with a particular product, system or servicePages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets

References

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (August 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Software Development Tools for Petascale Computing Workshop 2007
• Kernighan, Brian W.; Plauger, P. J. (1976), Software Tools, Addison-Wesley, pp. 352, ISBN 0-201-03669-X

External links

Media related to Programming tools at Wikimedia Commons

• Programming tools