Preparing the IDE

ESPlorer - the NodeMcu IDE

ESPlorer is the de facto NodeMcu IDE. It runs on any platform that has Java 7 or above installed. It's webpage has links to tutorials on how to use it.

I also find these:

https://roboindia.com/tutorials/starting-with-lua-on-esp8266-wifi-module

If you don't want to use Java for some reason, there is LuaLoader, but I never tried this one.

Arduino IDE:

https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit-huzzah-esp8266-breakout/using-arduino-ide

https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/esp8266-thing-hookup-guide/installing-the-esp8266-arduino-addon

https://randomnerdtutorials.com/how-to-install-esp8266-board-arduino-ide/