What do programming tools do?

Programming tools assist in the development of software. The most basic programming tool is the integrated development environment (IDE) which will include one or more code editors and resource editors, as well as file-management and debugging tools. Programmers can choose to use the built-in tools provided by the IDE or they choose to use external utilities and programming tools, such as help file authoring suites and more advanced resource editors and debugging utilities, many of which can be integrated into the IDE itself.