q/kdb+ IDEs

What is an IDE?

An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities for software development.

The boundary between an IDE and other parts of the broader software development environment is not well-defined; sometimes a version control system or various tools to simplify the construction of a graphical user interface (GUI) are integrated. Many modern IDEs also have a class browser, an object browser, and a class hierarchy diagram for use in object-oriented software development.

How does it help me?

Using an IDE for q/kdb+ development has the following advantages (over CLI based development):

1. A permanent 'notepad' for writing code (without needing to execute it)

2. Multi-line code execution.

3. Ability to execute specific parts of code, specific lines, etc.

4. Nicely formatted results

5. Save process details and easily switch between processes

6. History of executed commands

7. Charting/graphing and exporting of data

8. Function/namespace indexing and search 

9. Debugger

10. (In the case of VSCode and IntelliJ) - access to full codebase including ability to edit source files, git commit, etc.

How does it work?

What IDEs are available?

The following q/kdb+ IDEs exist:

1. KX Developer (KX)

2. QPad (Oleg Zakharov)

3. qStudio (TimeStored)

4. VSCode q/kdb+ extension (Jo Shinonome)

5. Intellij q/kdb+ (KDBInsideBrains / open-source)

6. JupyterQ (KX)