Selenium IDE is a firefox plugin that gives you a basic recorder for recording tests. These tests are written in the architecture based on the HTML table using keywords, and the IDE allows you to then export the code to other languages ββ(Java, .Net, PHP, Python, Ruby or Perl).
Selenium RC is an API available from several languages. Instead of writing tests, you write programs that are called into the API to control the browser.
You did not ask, but Selenium WebDriver is the equivalent of RC Selenium 2.0. This is an API that is called from any language that you use (I believe that it supports Java, .Net, Ruby, Python and PHP_. It is a different API than the one used in Selenium RC, but there is compatibility built in to create the transition is easier.
Most people believe that having a complete programming language available, like you do with RC / Webdriver, gives them much more power and flexibility. For example, conditional expressions, for example, if thens or loops are much easier to do in a programming language than in the HTML tables that the IDE works with. Selenium 2 has just been released today.
I have not used the IDE after a while, but from what I remember, most of the actual API that Selenium provides is available in both HTML keywords and API functions, but the API is much easier to work and make tests simpler that can be recorded.
More information can be found at http://seleniumhq.org
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