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View Poll Results: What is your favourite or most used Java IDE?

Voters
64. You may not vote on this poll
  • Eclipse

    18 28.13%
  • Netbeans

    26 40.63%
  • JBuilder

    0 0%
  • JCreator

    9 14.06%
  • JDeveloper

    2 3.13%
  • Textpad

    3 4.69%
  • BlueJ

    1 1.56%
  • IntelliJ

    2 3.13%
  • Dr.Java

    0 0%
  • Javelin

    0 0%
  • jEdit

    1 1.56%
  • TJI

    0 0%
  • Other (Please specify)

    2 3.13%
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Results 26 to 33 of 33

Thread: What is your favourite Java IDE?

  1. #26
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    Default Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    Used Crimson/Emerald Editor, but currently committed to Netbeans.

    The interface is nice and simple, re-fracturing, templates and insert code functions all work well. The emulators do everything I need them for.

    Any particular reason why you'd recommend Eclipse?

  2. #27
    Super Moderator helloworld922's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    For me, Eclipse is much more "in-tuitive" to use simply because it's the IDE i've started with. I know that Netbeans users will feel the same way about Netbeans, and it is true that it could very well be for them. I like Eclipse's drag and drop IDE components which makes re-arranging the workbench very easy, and their code formatting tools which work marvels with code that's kind of been put together poorly.

  3. #28
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    Lightbulb Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    I've been programming in Java for years, tried 4 IDE's, and have settled on Netbeans. Why?

    First let me list what I have used
    • Dr. Java - The very first IDE that I used a few years ago. Good because it came in just a single small Jar file, bad because it was slooooow, pretty basic, and had horrible project managment. It was okay for the initial learning, but not good for any actual productive work
    • JCreator - After a year or two of non-java work (mainly web development) I got pulled into a Java class that used JCreator. It was a big step up from Dr Java, and since it was written in C++, it was FAST! But I hated the fact that there was little to no error highlighting, little documentation, and lots of good features hidden in the pro version. Even when I pirated the pro version, it still was missing alot of useful features. It's a good IDE in the class room-ish, but for actual productive work, not really.
    • Netbeans - Lots of googling later turned up Netbeans. As many blogs have pointed out, the name made it sound like it wasn't for me (Using Beans in .NET?!), but I was in for a big suprise. Its the first production level IDE that I have ever used, and I am an instant fan. I use it currently for a semi-large project, and it works great. See below for a better explination
    • Intellij IDEA - When my project started to grow to the point where I needed modules, I tried out IDEA. I briefly experimented with it before I tried Netbeans, but in Xubuntu Linux it frequently crashed and had tons of errors (it generated a 2.6 MB error file). 4 months and an OS reinstall later, I tried it again. But its still the same way overcomplicated and strange interface, still slow compared to netbeans (even overheated my laptop a few times), and can't format code worth crap!

      When I migrated my project to IDEA, I was appalled by the length of the menu's (IE refractor); they were huge, long, and poorly named. Navigating the interface was very confusing, but I eventually sorta got used to it. Then I tried to fix several mysterious import problems. This, and when I tried to figure out keyboard shortcuts, is where I started to absolutely hate IDEA

      First there are 3 ways to complete code. What?! That's ridiculous to have to check several menu's just to get what you want! Then the import statements were all screwed up. When managing dependencies, it took a long time to figure out that I don't need a separate group for each dependency, but that I need to use the obscurely named "Single Entry Module Library". Why not simply call it Add Jar or something?!

      Then there is code formatting. In Netbeans I love its simple hotkey of Ctrl+Shift+F to <u>F</u>ormat code. Using that hotkey it formats it to the very customizable settings. But in IDEA, I have to reach all the way across the keyboard with Ctrl+Shift+L (what the heck does L mean?) AND answer a dialog. I want to write something sloppy and THEN format it quickly and easily. But thats not all. IDEA replaced all of my simple 2 line if statements with 4 line monsters with braces. Okay, I just need to configure something. But wait, where do I do it?! 10 minutes of googling takes me to File > Settings > Code Style, where apparently I have to export the style to the project, then... what?! More googling and reading tells me I finish editing it, then export the style giving it a name (there should only be ONE style per project, so why the name?). But then I apparently can't use the simple 2 line if statement, I MUST use braces. So more documentation points me to the appropriate option, but now its not replacing the old with the new, I have to MANUALLY do it!

      Next is the editor. Okay, looks pretty standard, and has some better color coding than NB. Alright lets go to the end of that line... wait, why am I not snapping to the end? No, I am going where ever my cusor is, floating in the middle of the editor! Okay, I'll just use the arrow keys... wait, its all SPACES?!

      Hmm, well lets consult the plugins. It does have nice categories, I will admit that. Then I get depressed again when I look at whats available: Propietary JIndent, and Jalopy's Open Source version. Installed Jalopy, then couldn't figure out where to configure it at. Finally found it under settings, browsed the tree twice, and it froze the whole IDE. Multiple try's reveal that error reporting only happens... sometimes?! Yea for useful error reporting!

      So after a week of headscraching, overheats, and slowness, I switched back to Netbeans. IDEA might be powerful, but is so rediculusly complicated and has a terrible counter-intuitive interface.


    If you didn't read above, I am currently using Netbeans. It makes SENSE. Great Formatting, code completion, dependency management, live compiling with useful error messages, debugger, etc. I will continue to use it until something catches my eye that does everything NetBeans does but better. And no, thats not eclipse. Way to many blogs and forums have scared me off.
    Last edited by Lord.Quackstar; May 22nd, 2010 at 11:07 AM. Reason: Fixed bold tags

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  5. #29
    mmm.. coffee JavaPF's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    VERY informative post Lord.Quackstar! +REP
    Please use [highlight=Java] code [/highlight] tags when posting your code.
    Forum Tip: Add to peoples reputation by clicking the button on their useful posts.

  6. #30
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    Default Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    Interesting. I and all my colleagues at work use IntelliJ IDEA. A few years back, we had an evaluation of all the available IDEs and it was preferred by almost everyone. IDEs have changed since then, but we still prefer for IDEA for most work.

    All the problems Lord.Quackstar has complained of appear to be down to not understanding how to configure and use IDEA, which is, admittedly, a complex and detailed product. I also agree the configuration isn't always as intuitive as it could be, but so it goes. It has a longer learning curve than some because it is designed for professional developers with particular emphasis on keyboard use (hot-keys, shortcuts, etc.), but all that stuff is configurable - menus, hot-keys, shortcuts, code layout, import handling, warnings, intentions, editor behaviour, etc. For those who aren't comfortable with their current IDE and haven't tried IDEA, there is now a free open-source Community Edition available.

    What you get out of a tool depends on what you put into it, and in my experience, different developers like different IDEs. I could never get on with Eclipse, although it's fairly close to IDEA in functionality. Horses for courses. As long as you find an IDE you're happy with and that fits your requirements, it's not particularly important.

  7. #31
    Super Moderator Json's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    Quote Originally Posted by Lord.Quackstar View Post
    Next is the editor. Okay, looks pretty standard, and has some better color coding than NB. Alright lets go to the end of that line... wait, why am I not snapping to the end? No, I am going where ever my cusor is, floating in the middle of the editor! Okay, I'll just use the arrow keys... wait, its all SPACES?!
    I used to always have this turned on when I was using Visual Studio for my C++ projects, it was called Virtual Whitespace back then, it allows you to go anywhere in the editing window even where there is no text, pretty good I thought back then.

    However, today I do not have that turned on and in fact I have a save action that removes all extra whitespace at the end of the lines.

    I've not really tried any other IDE's then Eclipse since I started developing using Java. I guess the simple answer to this is that there has never been a need for it, Eclipse fulfils all my developing needs and probably more.

    // Json

  8. #32
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    Default Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    First there are 3 ways to complete code. What?! That's ridiculous to have to check several menu's just to get what you want!
    all of your problems indicate that you were expecting idea to work in a way that it is not supposed to. there are actually SIX ways to complete code, and that is a very good thing once you understand why they are there. for example, there is a smart code completion that only offers expressions that have a return type that makes sense in the current context. for example:
    int x = x.get*complete here*
    will only offer methods that return values that can be assigned to an int.

    since you, the developer, already know in advance what you want, choosing the right code completion type saves you precious time.

    in general, idea seems to understand code, or rather its meaning, much better than eclipse. for example
    unknownsymbol.remove(5) alt*enter (aka ctrl+1 in eclipse) shows "introduce fueld/local var/constant/parameter". if i select any of these options, idea searches for the method "remove(int)" and only offers classes that contain such a method - for example, List, ArrayList and Collection. the "depth of understanding" is almost never to be found in eclipse.
    Last edited by hamsterofdeath; August 4th, 2010 at 01:16 PM.

  9. #33
    Super Moderator Sean4u's Avatar
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    Default Re: What is your favourite Java IDE?

    I use 'other' - I occasionally download an IDE (NetBeans, Eclipse) to see what they're like but rarely use them for more than a few minutes before I get annoyed by how slow they are. I develop Java projects of around 200-800KB in source with ROX-Filer and a bunch of faithful shell-scripts on ROX-Filer's 'Send to...' menu. I use vim as an editor. I use one shell script to 'watch' a file or files with inotifywait, sending them to javac when a file is modified, one shell script to re-build the entire project, another shell script so that I can right-click a source file and execute it directly (if it has a main method or static initialiser) and another shell script for regular backup to a couple of remote hosts. When I'm re-factoring an existing codebase, I have another background script that creates snapshots of the source tree so that I can go back to any point in my edits (handy for those one-off automated edit scripts that don't do quite what I expect). For code completion, I read the API docs.

    This method works great for me ... until I have to write a CV.

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