One of the most efficient ways to produce programs is to use
an IDE (Integrated Development Environment).
Why aren't they used more in an educational setting?
Probably the main reason is that it takes time to learn the tool,
time that instructors feel is not central to learning programming.
They also hide details that may be important to learn about.
Once you know how to do everything on your own, it's easier to
understand and use these systems.
Full-strength IDEs
These provide extensive programming support for editing, building GUI
interfaces, project management, debugging, etc.
These offer far more than is required by the student Java programmer,
and may be a barrier to learning Java because there is a lot to learn
about how to use them.
- NetBeans
- A free, open-source, IDE is available from Sun at
www.netbeans.org.
This is a good choice for students because of the
good GUI form editor and the editing and debugging facilities..
See NetBeans IDE for more information.
- Eclipse
- IBM's free Eclipse IDE, www.eclipse.org, is popular,
and is the first choice of many professionals.
It supports the non-standard SWT GUI library.
- JBuilder
- Borland's JBuilder (www.borland.com)
is good and the Personal Edition from the previous release is available as a
free download.
- Others
- There are other IDEs, but most of these aren't suitable for
student programs.
- IntelliJ IDEA is
reportedly excellent, but expensive. It gets more favorable
reviews by everyone who has used it than any other IDE.
There is a $99 academic price.
- Don't use Microsoft's Visual J++. Other parts of their Visual .NET
Studio may be good, but they have never provided good Java support.
Also, steer clear of Symantec's Visual Cafe for Java, which
is generally given poor reviews.
Half-strength IDEs
These are simpler to use for small projects, but typically don't
have nearly as many features, eg, no graphical user interface editor.
- jGRASP
- I've tried it briefly a few times. The Control Structure Diagramming is nice.
Easy to install. Many like it. Free.
www.eng.auburn.edu/grasp/.
- DrJava
- A popular, simple, free development system.
It enforces indentation and allows
immediate evaluation of expressions.
drjava.org.
- Others
-
- JCreator (www.jcreator.com) - Free and "Pro" versions.
A number of students have used this.
- Gel, free from www.gexperts.com is another possible student-level IDE.
I've never used it.
- JavaBeginner from www.javatoolsoft.com. I haven't taken a look at this relatively
new offering, and at $50, I probably will wait to hear what others say first.
- CodeGuide
(www.omnicore.com - $49 student price, free trial.
- BlueJ (www.bluej.org) - Used in
some intro courses, but programs use a non-standard interface and it doesn't produce real java programs.
- And many more...
Editors that run javac
Some programming editors will compile Java by linking to Sun's JDK.
- jEdit
- Free, open-source, and good. This is my favorite editor. Has full set of
plugins, eg to indent the source and compile.
www.jedit.org.
- TextPad
- Good, but doesn't indent program. Has brace matching feature.
Pay, but can continue to use trial version with nags.
If the Java SDK is installed first, TextPad will allow
compilation of Java programs from the editor.
www.textpad.com.