Java tutorials: Series Tutorial One: Programming IDE's.

[Tonypker]

If able this needs to be stuck, as it's the most important thing people should Know.

Integrated Development Environment. A smart editor that lets you edit, compile and debug all from within the same program. Most IDEs understand the Java class structure and let you rapidly find the method declarations or source code. In future IDEs will offer other services such as global variable renaming, multilingual source code and application code, and displaying the same source code in various different formats such as decision table, standard Java, tuple, postfix JASM or traditional bytecode.

Dave Dyer has written an essay comparing the various vendor IDE offerings. Also see the JavaWorld reviews.

IBM's Visual Age is the most impressive, but it does not integrate well with other tools such as code beautifiers, editors and source code version control.

I mostly work without an IDE, but when I use one I use Visual Café Database edition. Jikes and Slickedit is a powerful combo that is much lighter on its feet than any IDE. I only use the IDE for source code debugging.

Most IDEs don't include a source code debugger. Ones I know that do include one are: Café, JBuilder, VAJ, Forté.

Bruce Ingalls [email protected] did much of the work preparing this table. If you can help fill in the blanks in the table, please send me an email. Don't forget URLs. It would also be nice to note which of these IDEs can do which sorts of refactoring.

The most commonly used free IDEs are Eclipse and NetBeans for advanced users and BlueJ for beginners. The most commonly used commercial IDE is IntelliJ.

http://mindprod.com/jgloss/ide.html

IDE Table codes:

$    Commercial
F    Free
J    Java : any OS that supports pure Java
L    Linux
M    MacOS
O    Open source
S    Solaris
W    Windows 95/98/ME/NT/W2K/XP/W2K3

Popular IDEs

aCupOfCoffee            
AFC            
AnyJ       L    
Aptivity            
Arriba       L    
AvaJava            
Biss            
BlueJ       FJ    Notes. Often recommended for people just getting started.
Bluette       F    by Hyung G. Kim of South Korea.
Bongo            
CafeBabe            
Café Carouser            
Chicory       FJ    class diagrams and other software engineering tools too.
Code Crusader       OL W?    
Code Fusion       L    not to be confused with ColdFusion, a web server.
CodeGuide       $L    notes. Does syntax checking, completion and refactoring. This is Marshall Spight's favourite ide.
CodeWarrior       LMW    Notes.
Cosmo Code            
Diva            
Drag`enCode       $W    
Dr.Java       F    For people just getting started.
Eclipse       F    Does refactoring. Originally developed by IBM. Popular. It is an enormous project encompassing more than just an IDE. SWT is a crack at tackling the same problem Swing does. This is Jon Skeet's favourite IDE. It is the one I use. It is larger and more complex than JCreator. IBM is planning to replace it with an even more elaborate IDE.

People who don't like it find the interface non-intuitive. It is certainly not like anything else you have used. It also insists you lay your projects on disk its way which can be irksome unless you are starting an entirely new project. A class cannot belong to more than one project. It is the most popular power IDE.
ED            
ElixirIDE       FL    no longer supported
EMACS JDE       OJ    handles JDK 1.2. It also includes an obfuscator. Most passionately loved and hated editor on the planet. This is David Pollack's favourite ide.
FieldBird       FJO    open source. lightweight.
Freebuilder       FL    
FreeJava            now called RealJ
FrIJDE Free Java IDE            
Gel       WF    Gel is written in Delphi, natively compiled for Windows. It is billed as working quickly on less than top-of-the-line hardware. Supports both Java and JSP.
Grasp       J    JGrasp is written in Java, good for beginners.
Grinder            
GWT            
HahtSite            
Hope            
HotTEA            
IBM Websphere Studio Application Developer       $    Comes in Application, Site or Enterprise editions. Great CVS support with syncronizing, diffing and such out of the box, based on Eclipse, WSED has JSP highlighting and code completion. Takes forever to start up on a P4 1.7 but has all the bells and whistles. $5556.00 CAD for Application Developer. Last revised: 2005-08-26
Instant Basic            
Intellij Idea 7.0.3
Jetbrains Intellij Idea       $    Jetbrains Intellij Idea, written in Java. The IDE I use myself. Notes
J++            Microsoft's variant of Java. They now have a language called C#.
Jakarta            
JPadPro            
JaSupremo            
Jato            
Java Jake       F    available for UNIX, Windows, and MacOS9. simple, light weight fast, somewhat out of date.
Java WorkShop       F    Sun, aka JDE
JavaMaker            
Javelin            graphical IDE.
Javide            
JaWiz            
JBuilder       F$LW    Inprise/Borland. Notes. Requires 256 MB RAM to run reasonably.
JCoder       W    The entire download is only 2MB, so presumably this is a lightweight IDE that you would expect to run well on older equipment. I could not tell from the website if it were free.
JCreator Pro       $W    Free trial.$69.00 USD Last revised: 2005-08-26
JDE            based around EMACS editor
JDesignerPro       L    
JDeveloper       JFLMW    Oracle's offering. Many features. Now free. supports J2EE J2SE and J2ME as well as web services and pl/sql development includes UML, code generation and editing, debugging, profiling, monitoring testing, deploying...
jEdit            It has plugins to add different functionality such as JBrowse and JavaStyle.
JEditor            
JET            
JFactory            
JIG       L    
JForge            
Jirvana       F    very slow response time. Be patient.
JJct            
JMake       $    
Jpad Pro            
Jurtle       F    Logo-like turtle graphics and a beginner's IDE for learning Java.
Kawa       $W    Simple to use. Now owned by Allaire. No longer being developed or distributed. Does not support Java 1.4.
Koala            
Latte            Borland's code name for beta JBuilder.
Lava            
Lemur            
Metamata            Notes. Metamata is owned by Webgain that went belly up.
Metrowerks            
Mini Java Editor            
Mojo            
Mozart            concept programming
Netbeans       F    Evolved into Sun Forté then to One Studio, then to Sun Studio. Download is 15 MB vs 85 MB for One Studio. Has an absolute layout manager that they automatically convert to GridBagLayout. So you do your tweaking in the absolute layout manager and then do the conversion. I found the GUI builder quite buggy, though nicely designed. It would let you add any kind of component. It built event handling code. You could cut and paste components. It handled many kinds of layout. The lastest version is reputed to be remarkably quick.
Netbeans Mobility Pack       F    Add on to Netbeads for J2ME development i.e. cell-phones and PDAs.
Netcode            
Optima++            
OptimalJ       $    J2EE IDE by Compuware, built on NetBeans. Includes a package strucutura analysis tool. OptimalJ Community.
Parts For Java            A Java IDE environment similar to Smalltalk.
PowerJ            
IBM's Rational Software Architect       $$    very expensive. Does UML.
Ready To Program in Java            Java editor with minimalist IDE features for beginning Java students. Also runs on older and small windows desktop machines.
RealJ            formerly known as FreeJava, lightweight. good for students.
Revologic            workflow, pageflow, J2EE drag and drop
Roaster       M    
SAWT            
Seymour            
Simplicity            
Slickedit       $LW    Notes.
SNiff+J            
Solstice WorkShop            
Source Navigator       L    particularly good at browsing networks of classes quickly finding what you are looking for.
SubArctic            
Sun Java Studio Mobility       free for now    still in beta, for J2ME
Sun Studio       $J    née Forté, then One Studio, from Sun, requires fast machine with 512 MB RAM to work well.
Super Mojo       L    
SuperCede            bought by Instantiations and buried.
TJI       $FJ    light weight, designed for teaching Java. Lite version is free.
VIBE            by Visix
Vide            
Visaj       FLM    
Visual Age       FA    IBM. Notes. Smalltalk-like project management. Been largely replaced by Eclipse and IBM Websphere Studio Developer, Does not support Java 1.4.
Visual Café       $WM    now known as WebGAIN Studio.
webGAIN Studio            formerly Symantec Visual Café
WinGEN            
WipeOut       L    in German
Xelfi

IDE List:

Click here to download IntelliJ - FREE
Click here to download Eclipse - FREE

To add an IDE to this list, reply in the following rubric:

IDE Name:
IDE Download link:
Free or bought:

[mumups]

I don't get all this computer language lol but i'm sure other people will!