You'll have to pry UltraEdit and batch files from my cold, dead hands before I use any IDE :)
Ok, I'm not really quite THAT extreme. :) But it has been my experience that no IDE adds anything big enough to deal with the little annoyances that they all seem to have (most of them seem to have the same annoyances too). I've been trying a couple more lately to see what I'm missing, and at this point my conclusion is the same as it was before: not enough to make the switch. I'm not a fan of code generators of any kind in general, even if it's generating minor code like getters and setters. I don't like being "freed" of even "mundane" tasks. I like to think, I like being in complete control. And besides, I tend to think and work faster than most people I've met (probably not BETTER, just faster), so a lot of these "time-saving" tools like code generators don't atually save me any significant time in the end. I don't like being forced to work any particular way, and every IDE I've tried does that. Here's the first thing I look at with any new IDE: does it force me to create a project if all I want to do is enter a quick class, compile and execute it? I've never met an IDE that allows me to do that, they all want me to set up a project. I've tried IntelliJ, Eclipse, WSAD, JDeveloper, and a few other lesser known ones. They all suffer this problem (well, problem in my mind anyway, some people don't mind, or even prefer it this way). None of them allow me to customize them to the degree I want and need... For example, Eclipse... is there an option to put text labels on the toolbar icons? I can't find it. Little things like that wind up making me less efficient. To be sure, IDEs do offer some functionality that I'd like to have... renaming variables throughout a bunch of source files is very nice. Some of the refactoring tools are of course very useful. There's some decent class browsing functionality I've seen, cross-linking between various source files and such for instance. Intellisense-type functionality can sometimes be useful (can also sometimes just get in the way I think). Debuggers of course are nice (although honestly I've been programming for almost 23 years and I've found I can work as well without them as with them 95% of the time... still, nice to have that 5% of the time). But they don't save me enough time to make everything else like slow startup speed, less than stellar reaction times (try right-clicking on source in WSAD... argh! I'll go get my lunch while I wait for the menu to appear) and the typical "we know the best way to develop so do it our way" syndrome they all seem to suffer from. In the end, much of programming winds up being text editing anyway, so why not have the best text editor you can find? UltraEdit is that for me. It has nice macro capability, so I wind up having a lot of the same functionality IDEs provide anyway (like code cleanup for instance). It has a nice file system browser, so as long as I put all the files of my project in one folder I get essentially a hierarchical view of it. It has a fantastic search and replace facility, so a great deal of code refactoring I wind up doing with that. My directory structure is my package scheme, so I get that. I'm exceptionally proficient in simple batch files (that become not so simple) so I have a lot of hotkeys that shell out to processes to do various thing... For instance, I do my development under Tomcat... I have one batch file that will shut down Tomcat if running, recompile my entire webapp (including JSPs), report any errors back to me (and I can click on the error and be brought right to the offending line), then it restarts Tomcat and opens my browser to the starting page of the app. This is all assigned to Alt-F1. That's it, one keypress, no dialogs to muddle through, it all happens seemlessly, and very quickly... there's around 600 source files in this project with something like 75,000 lines of code... it all happens in about 15 seconds, give or take. To me, that saves as much time as many of the smaller productivity tools in any IDE do combined. I'm not actually trying to convince anyone of anything here, except this: each of us works at their peak efficiency in different ways. It is a big mistake in my opinion to force an IDE on someone, or a set of tools. Many companies make that mistake. Let people use the tools they work the best with. For many that will be a full-blown IDE anyway. If your style has become as refined as mine has though, an IDE will either get in the way or at best not offer enough to make the switch worth it. Ironically, I do use an IDE when doing my C++ PocketPC development. But, as a good example of what I'm saying, I find myself fighting it many times and costing me time, probably as much as it saves me at others. There's not nearly as much choice there though. Hey, try every IDE you can get your hands on. Most of the Java IDEs tend to be very similar these days, but give each a shot and see which you can become the most comfortable with as quickly as possible. But don't ignore the possibility of not using one at all either. Many of us get by extremely well without them. To some it's sacrosanct to say anything other than IDEs are the greatest thing since sliced bread, but any opinion that rigid is usually not worth listening to anyway in my experience. -- Frank W. Zammetti Founder and Chief Software Architect Omnytex Technologies http://www.omnytex.com On Thu, January 13, 2005 9:22 am, Raj Tilak said: > Strongly recommend IntelliJ IDEA. The best innovative Java IDE. Certainly > reduces a lot of development time. > If you can spend a little definitely IDEA or else Eclipse. > >>From: Antony Paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Reply-To: Antony Paul <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>To: Struts Users Mailing List <user@struts.apache.org> >>Subject: Re: Java IDE's >>Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:49:07 +0530 >> >>I use Eclipse. Earlier I was sticking to EditPlus. I was very >>comfortable with it. My other team menbers are using Eclipse and we >>needed a standard environment to work as the client required that I >>started using Eclipse. First it was very boring to use it as it takes >>time to start up, open a file etc. Then I learned that it have lot of >>features. Some are >>1. Shows which code is using a method,constructor, variable in the >>project. It is very important as we are working on a maintenance >>project. >>2. Package Explorer - which shows the class files in a package in a >>hierarchy and we can see the members of that class. >>3. Built in CVS support with SSH - This is imortant to connect to >>remote servers and there are hardly any other free tools for windows >>platform. >>4. Can set the editor to use spaces instead of tab. >>5. Integrates with Ant. >>6. It is free. >> >>The cons are >>1. No way to save a file in another platforms line ending character. >>ie. I cant save a file created in windows in Linux format. >>2. Can't type in CVS commands from a command prompt. >>3. is slow even on a system with 512 MB RAM. >> >> You have to choose an IDE based whether it satisfies your >>requirements. Usually it will be requirements of the project you are >>working with. >> >>rgds >>Antony Paul >> >> >>On Thu, 13 Jan 2005 15:56:32 +0530, Ashutosh Satyam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>wrote: >> > Hi, >> > Though this is an off topic question, but still >> > I'm posting it here as I have found this mailing >> > list to be active and members try to furnish the >> > information as much as possible. >> > >> > Q) Could you suggest some Java IDE's >> > >> > 1. What are the top 3 good features you seen in this IDE >> > 2. What are the top 3 negatives of those IDEs. >> > >> > As for me I'm a VI/EMAC user. But I feel usage >> > of an IDE undoubtedly increases efficieny and productivity >> > of development cycle. >> > >> > All inputs are welcome. >> > >> > Thanks in advance, >> > Ashutosh >> > >> > --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > >> > >> >>--------------------------------------------------------------------- >>To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >> > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >
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