Programming: Choice of Development Environment

Web design, development, programming, all require choices to be made about which technology to use in its ‘proper context.’ My own efforts in learning to grow my code skills also require choices in this area to be made.

Context is essential to understanding what is actually being done.

For instance, in previous posts, here is one, and I know that post barely scratches the surface of my Python work or my usage of GitHub…I admit that…** I have made mention of my use of Python coding (strictly on Python 3.x) for reading and making sense of statistical data as produced by catalogers (metadata professionals) in the last two libraries that have employed me – – I make mention of this point because both are perfectly fine for writing and testing Python code.

The image above includes the ‘vs’ between PyCharm and Visual Studio Code (VSC), but I personally think that is there for ‘drama’s’ sake. I actually use both. Since working from home during covid-time, I have shifted completely to Linux (have been an active user and advocate for Linux for quite a while). In this context, I prefer to use the Community Edition of PyCharm. VSC also has a Linux version available, but at work, which uses Microsoft products mainly, we even use Outlook, I have adopted VSC there, simply because it integrates so easily with the Windows command prompt. One need not always make a task more complex because one can…:) Obviously, both allow the seamless flow of editing code and testing it by either pressing a ‘button’ or by running commands in the CLI.

I also use Atom and the GitHub GUI for Windows for version control on Windows, but am moving to an almost total CLI interaction with GitHub from Linux. But, I do not want to talk about that here (and my workflow is not super integrated anyway yet, but is getting tighter and tighter)

In this post, marking my move toward studying front end development, I am working out my coding in HTML, CSS, and JS, to Sublime Text – with all testing of results in by personal browser of choice, Brave (a fork of Chrome).

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The reason for this simple decision is because, Sublime Text is simply amazing, duh, and I don’t need to test code as one tests Python. In HTML, CS, and JS, one can test much simply by rendering results in the browser. One does not need a more integrated IDE.

This is just an FYI, but I wanted to let you know some of my thinking processes. Plus, one of the simple things I learned from Coder Vox, is that it is okay to put my thinking processes on display as I learn more and grow my skills.

Thank you for reading.

** I really have not tracked my growing usage of Github. If you want to take a look at my GitHub profile, and my most recent version of the statistics script I use, please look here. I keep a lot of my repos private because they have been used to learn things, or track other people’s projects. I don’t consider these things that I am including in my ‘GitHub’ CV…or whatever one may call it. More repos are coming soon, Lord willing.