Therefore, some programmers and coders choose to stick with a basic text editor. IDEs tend to take up more CPU power and memory than the average text editor, and the sheer volume of features and capabilities can compromise efficient text editing. This makes for speedy programming with less editing time and stress. An IDE is a text editor, debugger, and compiler all in one. It allows for more than just text editing. IDE stands for “integrated development environment.” An IDE is a tool for programmers.