What was the first program that was created as a dedicated IDE? That is, purpose built for coding, rather than simply allowing integration as part of its expansion options.
This is opposed to a text editor that has generic plugin/add-in/shell features that are were not dedicated to development work.
The features I am thinking about that would qualify an editor as an IDE:
- Code highlighting
- Integrated compiler invocation (with error reporting)
- Code navigation features
- (optionally) integrated debugger
Sub question – what was the first Visual IDE? (by which I mean with an integrated GUI designer).
Best Answer
I'd nominate dBase II which appeared in 1979. It had integrated compilation and code editing/navigation and debugging. No code highlighting though - but I don't regard that as a prerequisite for making something an IDE, personally.