In order to develop for WordPress, you're also going to need a way to write and edit WordPress code.
All code is essentially just text.
And so you could technically write and edit WordPress code in your operating system's text editor.
You would, however, be missing out on all the best features the true code editors and integrated development environments or IDEs offer to you.
If you don't already have a code editor or IDE that you are comfortable with, here are some options to consider.
Visual Studio Code is a free and open source code editor created by Microsoft.
It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
It offers support for a wide range of languages, including HTML, PHP, JavaScript and CSS.
It also offers additional features like a built-in terminal with the ability to add more features through extensions.
Virm is a free and open source text editor that is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
It is a command line based editor and is not as user-friendly as other editors.
It does, however, offer a wide range of features and is highly customizable.
Brackets is another free code editor originally created by Adobe, but now open sourced.
It is also available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Brackets is similar to Visual Studio Code in that it offers support for a wide range of languages
and additional features through extensions.
Sublime Text is another code editor available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
It is not free, but it does offer a free trial and was a very popular code editor before Visual Studio Code was released.
Notepad Pass Plus is a free and open source editor that is available for Windows.
Often seen as a powerful replacement for the default Windows text editor, it's also popular as a code editor.
TextMate is a free and open source editor that is available for Mac.
Like Notepad Plus Plus, it is a replacement for the default Mac OS text editor and offers code editor features.
PHP Storm is a fully integrated development environment created by JetBrains.
It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
It is not free, but it does offer a free trial and is popular with developers who work with PHP based applications.
Like when you choose a local development environment, choosing a code editor is a personal choice and there is no right or wrong answer.
For much of the content on learn.wordpress.org, we will be using Visual Studio Code,
but you are free to use whichever code editor you are most comfortable with.
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