Documentation

Code Editors

In order to develop the code for your robot, we recommend that you use a code editor. A code editor (rather than a plain text editor) will make it easier to develop your code and help you catch errors sooner.

However you are working on your code, you are encouraged to ensure you have a backup!

Choosing an Editor

There are lots of code editors to choose from. Several are freely available for Python and support features which will make it easier to develop your code.

Some features to look for are:

  • Syntax highlighting makes it easier to see the overall structure of a program without needing to read every word.

  • Code completion offers suggestions of what you might want to type and can offer a way to explore what features an API offers.

  • Interactive debugging allows stepping through code one statement at a time, examining the results as you go.

  • Integration with tools known as “linters” which can help check that your code is well formed without running it (a process formally known as “static analysis”).

While you can use a plain text editor like Notepad to edit your code, we would recommend that you choose an editor which supports at least syntax highlighting.

Common Editors

Here are some common Python editors: