Do you draw a distinction between text editors and IDEs?

Question

I've seen several responses to questions asking for IDEs where text editors were suggested and vice-versa. That makes me think that people treat them as the same thing, where I draw clear distinctions.

1. How do you define "text editor" and "IDE"?
2. Do you see a difference between the two tools?

Note that I accepted an answer which I think best addressed the concepts of "text editor" and "IDE". However, it's just my personal opinion of what best addresses the question and I will continue to check in on this question from time to time to see if there's a better answer and I will accept that one.

Answer 1

The confusion arises from the fact that a text editor is a core component of every IDE. But, an IDE has much more than just a text editor; it also has interfaces to compilers, debuggers, profilers, reference material, and more.

Many text editors have plugins or other flexible extension mechanisms, often including the ability to "wrap" external tools like those I mentioned above. The key difference, IMHO, is the "I" in IDE - integrated. An IDE is (again, IMHO) something that's purposefully designed to support a specific set of tools, one of which is a text editor.

Answer 2

I use both and I suggest you do too. Sometimes an IDE can make development faster - like code completion and refactoring support. Fast find of files and symbols, functions, classes in project not to mention project management features. Sometimes they'll manage the build for you. Maybe it has a built in debugger (a good built in debugger is worth gold). How about code snippets and file templates. Sometimes an IDE will help you build GUI interfaces and data stores. I've seen ones that help you build regexps and run SQL queries.

These (IMO) are all sugar. I also use a plain text editor (although I really appreciate code syntax coloring nowadays) and roll most of that other stuff myself. Some of the newer text editors are creeping into IDE territory (e.g. TextMate) since they are extensible enough to allow for most of the above paragraphs niceties.

In 90% of the cases I use what I am given or what the majority of the teams uses (I am a contractor). This reduces the build conflicts that can arise if you decide to go it on your own. By learning to use IDE's, text editors and everything in between you will stay flexible and able to cope with whatever is thrown at you.