What is the difference between framework and IDE?

IDE :

is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of:

• a source code editor
• a compiler and/or an interpreter
• build automation tools
• a debugger

IDE is just the development environment while the Framework is the backbone of compiling the code.

IDE's :

• Visual Studio
• Jbuilder
• jdeveloper
• eclipse
• netbeans
• and so on

While a Framework :

is an abstraction in which common code providing generic functionality can be selectively overridden or specialized by user code, thus providing specific functionality. Frameworks are a special case of software libraries in that they are reusable abstractions of code wrapped in a well-defined Application programming interface (API), yet they contain some key distinguishing features that separate them from normal libraries.

But Framework for .Net programmers is different than what Java programmers understand

Framework for java programmers is:

• Spring Framework
• Struts Framework
• Shine Enterprise Java Pattern

Framework for .net programmers is:

• .net Framework 1.1
• .net Framework 2
• .net Framework 3
• .net Framework 3.5
• .net Framework 4