Lord Draegon said:
So you need a writer: but what's so special about one over another. Isn't NotePad a basic writer? Isn't a writer all you need? About the Crimson Editor, what does it do?
EditPlus, UltraEdit and Crimson Editor are "programmer's editors". They provide additional features that makes programming more convenient... e.g. Syntax highlight - different types of word with different colours. It makes it easier to inspect code, and you can spot typos immediately.
All the three mentioned editors use syntax files - so if you want to use a language, you create a syntax file for it, or download one that other made.
They also provide other features, like regular expression search and replace, concept of a project - when you open a project, the editor provides you a panel containing all the files in the project, mapping third-party tools into menu (for compilation, document generation, etc.).
Lord Draegon said:
Then the whole Integrated Development Environment (IDE) what does that do? I really have no idea.
With an simple editor, you manage your source files yourself, create your own compilation scripts (or compile manually), in other words, do anything yourself.
With IDE, your source files are managed in a project, they provide easy ways to compile and generate documentation, provides a visual debugging tool, code completion, syntax highlight, realtime code parsing, visual UI creator, etc.
Check out the official site of NetBeans, Eclipse, etc. They have their features listed.
Lord Draegon said:
Also, a friend has Visual Studio with .Net or something. Is that any good and what type of program is it?
VS.Net is the IDE for writing programs in Microsoft languages e.g. C#.Net, VB.Net, ASP.Net, etc.