Computer Science Canada

Java IDEs and Editors

Author:  rizzix [ Wed May 28, 2003 5:28 pm ]
Post subject:  Java IDEs and Editors

Editors...
* Jedit (Java Based)
* Jext (Java Based)
* BBEdit (MacOSX native)
* SubEthaEdit (MacOSX native)
* TextWrangler (MacOSX native)

IDEs...
* Borland JBuilder (Java Based) [always bundled with JDK]
* Sun One Studio 4 (Java Based) [not bundled with JDK]
* netbeans (Java Based) [not bundled with JDK]
* Eclipse (Java Based) [not bundled with JDK]
* XCode (MacOSX native)
* JCreator (windows native)
* JDeveloper (Java Based) [optionally bundled with JDK]
* WebSphere (Java Based)
* DrJava (Java Based) [not bundled with JDK]
* BlueJ (Java Based) [not bundled with JDK]
* Intellij IDEA (Java Based) [not bundled with JDK]



** all IDEs can be set to work with a different JDK. (including a manually installed JDK)
** some IDE's can be configured to work with multiple JDKs
** for those IDEs not bundled with a JDK u need to download one form Sun's Jave Website

Author:  rizzix [ Wed Jun 04, 2003 3:03 pm ]
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Eclipse is a huge project started of by IBM or something like that. Basically it's supposed to be the Best IDE ever.

well it still rather new. so don't expect much. but it looks better that the others.

PS: i use eclipse all the time!! its the best IMHO.

Author:  rizzix [ Sat Jul 05, 2003 3:17 pm ]
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JDeveloper by Oracle is another great Java IDE used by companies.

u can get the developer version for free i think. but u need to sign up first.

you might also want to check out the demos

PS: this IDE is directed towards J2EE development


EDIT: i did a little test with this IDE.. really cool .. if u want to run this IDE do install the "complete version" specially if ur jdk is > or < the one it requires. (it won't replace ur current jdk but simply install it side-by-side with ur current one)

Author:  rizzix [ Sat Jul 05, 2003 3:22 pm ]
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IBM's WebShpere is based on eclipse. It really completes the Eclipse project adding numerous features specifically directed towards J2EE development. But i don't think it's free. Maybe there is a developer version available, but I'm only guessing.

PS: also use by companies..
(u see there is no standard IDE)



EDIT: i did some research here.. and found out that it is not for free.. but u can try out the trial version(s) for a limited time period.

Author:  rizzix [ Sat Jul 05, 2003 3:34 pm ]
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SubEthaEdit is a concept made real: collaborative editing. It's a Cocoa editor for MacOSX, and supports syntax highlighting for a number of languages.

Quote:

...The idea of collaborative editing has been researched for years, with notable results. But now for the first time it has been implemented in a way you actually want to use: A sophisiticated technique allows all users to type anywhere in the text without locking parts of the text for other users, making SubEthaEdit just as easy to use as a traditional text editor.

Author:  rizzix [ Sat Sep 06, 2003 2:36 pm ]
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DrJava is an opensource IDE designed for simplicity. It is primarily designed for beginners but has good enough features for development as well. There is also a DrJava Eclipse plugin available that provides a DrJava perspective in eclipse (a more simple interface). A great choice for beginners to intermediate experience developers.

EDIT: Good choice for learning java but not such a good choice for serious development

Author:  rizzix [ Sat Sep 06, 2003 2:40 pm ]
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Netbeans is an opensource IDE. It is the base on which SunOne is built. SunOne is basically an extension to netbeans. Thus if your looking into an opensource alternate to SunOne, this IDE is the one for you.

Author:  rizzix [ Sat Sep 06, 2003 2:45 pm ]
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BlueJ is a project at Deakin University, Australia, the Mærsk Institute, University of Southern Denmark and the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. It is designed for learning Java.

Quote:

The BlueJ environment was developed as part of a university research project about teaching object-orientation to beginners. The system is being developed and maintained by a joint research group at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia, the Mærsk Institute at the University of Southern Denmark, and the University of Kent in Canterbury, UK. The project is supported by Sun Microsystems.

The aim of BlueJ is to provide an easy-to-use teaching environment for the Java language that facilitates the teaching of Java to first year students. Special emphasis has been placed on visualisation and interaction techniques to create a highly interactive environment that encourages experimentation...


EDIT: i recommend it if your interesting in learning java using UML diagrams.. in any case JDeveloper also has support of UML diagrams. This is not such a good choice for serious development

Author:  rizzix [ Thu Sep 11, 2003 5:21 pm ]
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Intellij's IDEA is another great feature-full IDE with good looks.

You can try it for free for 30 days, after that if you still want to use it you'll have to buy it. It is worth the price.

But IDE's like eclipse which are free provide almost everything these IDE do. So i wouldn't recommend buying it.

Author:  Homer_simpson [ Fri Feb 13, 2004 9:35 pm ]
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i got eclipse... i got both sdk and ide from sun.com...
but for some reason it doesn't run on my comp... any suggestions?

Author:  rizzix [ Sat Feb 14, 2004 11:59 am ]
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what are the errors you get? try editing ur CLASSPATH env variable

Author:  rizzix [ Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:39 pm ]
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programming with a partner? try programming the same file together at the same time.. beside the mac dudes out there i'm quite sure none of u have ever experiecen this style of programming.

i've got good news, well at least for eclipse programmers. Yes it is possible!
go ahead and download sangam: http://sangam.sourceforge.net/ a plugin for eclipse.

instuctions on how to install this plugin are available on the website it self.

enjoy Wink

Author:  wtd [ Thu Mar 11, 2004 9:49 pm ]
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rizzix wrote:
programming with a partner? try programming the same file together at the same time.. beside the mac dudes out there i'm quite sure none of u have ever experiecen this style of programming.


:sigh: It'd be even better if they hadn't taken the name "Hydra" away from us.

Author:  Tony [ Fri Mar 12, 2004 12:22 am ]
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rizzix - you ever done pair programming yourself?

Author:  rizzix [ Fri Mar 12, 2004 1:53 pm ]
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no, not yet.

Author:  McKenzie [ Fri Jun 18, 2004 3:26 pm ]
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rizzix, I'm teaching Java at Massey next year (from MS VC++ this year.) What do you suggest would be the best IDE for a grade 12 class (I'm leaning towards netbeans but I havn't fully looked at all of the ones that I want to yet. I was originally going to just use the Holt one ... until I tried it myself Sad From your post DrJava sounds good, but I have yet to give it the once over. I'm looking for the obvious features;
1. Free download.
2. Easy to use.
3. Powerfull support/help/organization tools

What do you suggest? Or, at least, can you give me a top 3 list to look at?

Author:  wtd [ Fri Jun 18, 2004 5:14 pm ]
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I would humbly submit that an IDE is best avoided, at least for this level. It's too easy to students to get confused about what is a feaure of the language, and what is a feature of the IDE.

I've seen far too many students who consider Microsoft's IDE features an integral part of the language (C++). It's unfortunate that students are given this misunderstanding, and combatting it takes time that could best be spent on actually teaching the language and libraries.

The class I took on Java using TextPad (with Java syntax definition file) for editing and the standard command-line tools from Sun to compile seemed to work well for most of the students.

Author:  Dan [ Fri Jun 18, 2004 6:42 pm ]
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For my grade 12 compsci class i used JCreator and found it to be good and free. I whould higly recomend not using the holth one b/c it has unstanted APIs and libbarys that students can uses and make there porgames unportable. I found JCreater easy to use and the only realy slighty compliacted part of it is seting it up where u need to tell it where the java dir is and any java docs u need to use. Also i like how you can right click on a line and slected an option to look up that comand in any java doc you have installed on the comp. The only bad thing i expcirced when using it is that when u type a '(' it puts in a ')' right affter it aucamity witch can be anyonying as hell most of the time. Alougth you can trun this off in the options.

Author:  rizzix [ Fri Jun 18, 2004 11:13 pm ]
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JCreator - fast, easy to use, word completion, reasonable amount of features, best used as an editor not as an IDE (at times a simple editor proves to be the best tool for first-time programmers.. well this is a little more than that.. and makes java coding fun and easy)

Eclipse - reasonably fast, flexible, extremely powerful, acceptably easy to use, loaded with features (i would recommend eclipse for anything Mr. Green )

Orace JDeveloper - acceptably easy to use, yet interesting IDE, has features that some others don't provide by default (well.. some of them have plugins that provide these features, eg: eclipse), includes UML support (just incase your intereseted in teaching with the aid of UML diagrams)


PS: Eclipse and JDeveloper have fantastic help and support. Specially JDeveloper, the Oracle site includes some online flash demos

Author:  rizzix [ Fri Jun 18, 2004 11:38 pm ]
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IntelliJ is also a really good IDE. Its next under eclipse in number of features and has a better look-and-feel than most IDE's. But i listed JDeveloper instead as the third choice since JDeveloper is quite unique. Most IDE's are all the same.

They all provide what you need and also tend to be more specialized in aiding the programmer in some specific task, like webservices for instance. All you as a programmer is interested in getting the best deal you can get. The most balanced and workable solution. This is the best reason to recommend Eclipse, after all its not developed just by one company, but by many. So you get the most balanced IDE to your aid. And it can be specialised: you could add UML support to eclipse through some plugins available and you can also add a GUI building visual aid likewise.

JCreator is unique in its own way it represents a quick IDE, lite on features, good for programming when you hate creating "projects" -- some IDEs actualy most of them "force" you to create a new project. This one dosen't come in your way. It's like notepad with code completion and code colouring and a few extra features.

So there you go: Ecplise -- the mod-able IDE, JCreator -- the minimal IDE, JDeveloper -- the IDE that isin't given the attention it needs.

Author:  McKenzie [ Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:51 am ]
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Thanks, all three of you. You have all pointed me back to the basic KISS principle. I think JCreator is probably the best way to go. I could use the Holt IDE and just not use their stupid proprietary classes but I think it would annoy kids having what looks like the exact same editor as Turing and very few features.

Author:  The_$hit [ Mon Apr 18, 2005 9:32 pm ]
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I am currently using wetrowerks codewarrior. I would be using Xcode but i don't have OS X 10.3. Is there any downfalls to codewarriors IDE?

Author:  wtd [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 9:44 pm ]
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The_$hit wrote:
I am currently using wetrowerks codewarrior. I would be using Xcode but i don't have OS X 10.3. Is there any downfalls to codewarriors IDE?


Don't you have the OS X discs? Even if you don't have access to "Xcode" you can still use Project Builder and Interface Builder.

Author:  apomb [ Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:12 pm ]
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is netbeans any good? i am thinking of using it ... its on all the computers at my school.

Author:  rizzix [ Tue Apr 04, 2006 9:34 pm ]
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Netbeans 5.x is good Smile

Author:  Krabjuice [ Mon Apr 10, 2006 11:14 am ]
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I'll have to put my vote towards JCreator, for all the reasons described (somewhere) above.

Author:  Aziz [ Mon Jul 17, 2006 8:40 am ]
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JCreator is nice . . . but what's this code completion I'm hearing about? Damn, I've gotta go check this out.

Author:  Aziz [ Wed Aug 23, 2006 8:40 am ]
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Just a note on JCreator (and perhaps a question too?): It seems to be lagging quite a bit. I don't know why but every 10-15minutes in freezes and locks up for a few minutes. I've got the Pro version, so I don't know if that's the problem.

Author:  jernst [ Fri Apr 04, 2008 8:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Java IDEs and Editors

I wish they would release JCreator for linunx Sad

Author:  Nick [ Fri Apr 04, 2008 3:07 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Java IDEs and Editors

check out jGRASP it's the IDE my school uses and it's the best IDE I've used for any language but I haven't used much

Author:  shadowman544 [ Wed May 28, 2008 7:06 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Java IDEs and Editors

dont bother nick is delusional JGrasp sucks in comparison to most other IDEs i downloaded eclipse to use instead because it is so much nicer that jgrasp. nick couldnt run eclipse so he doesnt know the crime he has committed by using jgrasp in it's sted

Author:  Dark [ Mon Jun 29, 2009 11:10 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Java IDEs and Editors

I love eclipse <3
going to use it for C++ development as well

Author:  andrew. [ Mon Jun 29, 2009 5:11 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Java IDEs and Editors

I really like Eclipse, but most of the time I just use a text editor and the terminal to compile and run my source.

Author:  TheGuardian001 [ Mon Jun 29, 2009 7:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Java IDEs and Editors

I use eclipse, since it's easy to use and functional. And I hate messing around with command line compilers. It's the first one I was introduced to and I've never really used another one.

Author:  Kam [ Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:39 am ]
Post subject:  RE:Java IDEs and Editors

I first used text files and command lines to learn Java. My grade 10 computer science teacher told our class to JCreator, which I got used to then. But there were so many problems with JCreator (ie. sometimes you run a program and it runs a different one, the errors are misleading and confusing when I first started). So, I found eclipse with a few friends and we tried it out. It was so much better than JCreator so we pasted the eclipse files into the school computers and used them instead.

eclipse is, without a doubt, the best Smile

Author:  andrew. [ Thu Dec 03, 2009 5:20 pm ]
Post subject:  RE:Java IDEs and Editors

We had to use JCreator as well Kam, but my teacher let me install Linux on the computer and I used Eclipse from there. Now we use JGrasp though, it's better than JCreator, but not as good as Eclipse. It's simple to use though like JCreator.


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