Available IDEs and editors for C#

Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is nothing but software facilitating the development of applications. On the other hand, editors are basically meant to add/update predefined or new content. When we talk about the C# editor, we are referring to an editor that helps write C# programs. Some editors come with a lot of add-ons or plugins and can compile or run the programs.

We will use Visual Studio 2017 as our preferred C# IDE; however, there are a few more C# IDEs and editors you can go with:

1. Visual Studio Code: VS Code is an editor, and you can start by downloading it from https://code.visualstudio.com/. To start with VS Code, you need to install the C# extension from https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=ms-vscode.csharp.
2. Cloud9: It is a web browser-based IDE. You can start it for free by signing up at https://c9.io/signup.
3. JetBrain Rider: This is a cross-platform IDE by JetBrains. For more information, visit https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/.
4. Zeus IDE: This is an IDE designed for the Windows platform. You can start using Zeus from https://www.zeusedit.com/index.html.

1. Text editor: This is the way you can go without any installation; just use a text editor of your choice. I use Notepad++ (https://notepad-plus-plus.org/download/v7.3.3.html) and the Command Line Interface (CLI) to build code. Refer to https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/articles/core/tools/ to know more about how to start with the CLI.

There may be more alternative IDEs and editors, but they are not as important to us.