Java Programming

Shicky

Shicky

Shicky

Associate
Joined
13 Jan 2007
Posts
2,424
Location
Belfast,Northern Ireland
Hey all, just started this with uni. Im decent enough but would like to do more outside uni, i've tried using the same as uni Jcreator Pro. Same version too, however this just doesnt work correctly despite being very similar to the uni one. Anyway what programs do other people use for java?

Just to say i had JDK installed too so that wasnt the problem, maybe as it was an evaluation copy and just a bit too different.
 
At uni we use Eclipse & Netbeans, I like them both as they have quite similar features. I like netbeans for its GUI editor which is handy but you probably won't need to use it for a ehile if you've just started learning.

We used BlueJ for the first term of uni because it is an excellent learning tool and you can understand how the object are represented and how methods are used. We were following the 'Objects First with Java' book though.
 
I use IntelliJ nearly entierly these days for Java. It's a commercial IDE but out netbeans, eclipse and intelllij I find it the best to use.
 
Hi there Shicky,

I have started Java also this year in uni and they use JCreator LE version although its catergorised under JCreator Pro in all programs on their system :p

Therefore I use JCreator LE at home, its the free educational version and have had no problems with it, but I have heard from other people in my class not being able to get any version of JCreator working :(. Only alternative is to use one of the ones recommended by others.

Off topic - Do you go to Queen's by any chance?
 
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I tended to favour Eclipse over Netbeans, as the UI on the former is implemented using the Standard Widget Toolkit rather than Swing, and seemed a lot more responsive. Netbeans seemed to have a few more features, but Eclipse was starting to catch up when last I looked.
 
Yeah eclipse is a little speedier than netbeans and uses quite a bit less memory. Netbeans is useful for web stuff though as it includes tomcat and supports things like XML validation.
 
We had Netbeans at uni but I always ended up resorting to eclipse on the old USB stick, much better program (imo).
 
zinc said:
Hi there Shicky,

I have started Java also this year in uni and they use JCreator LE version although its catergorised under JCreator Pro in all programs on their system :p

Therefore I use JCreator LE at home, its the free educational version and have had no problems with it, but I have heard from other people in my class not being able to get any version of JCreator working :(. Only alternative is to use one of the ones recommended by others.

Off topic - Do you go to Queen's by any chance?
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Yeah mate i go to QUB as well. You first year comp science too?

I've tried using JCreator LE at home too but it doesnt seem to work, for example with GetScannerInput, it just fails = scum
 
I just use a free text editor. None of these fancy IDEs for me. Although if I were to do a big project in Java now, I probably would use an IDE. At the moment I only need to do little things in it.
 
The main benefit of a full IDE such as Eclipse or Netbeans is the debugger. If you have learnt how to use the debugger you can track down functional problems very easily.
 
Use Vim, once you configure it you will find it to be perfect! For learning, meh, don't use an IDE as they only cloud the internals that you need to learn.
 
refresh said:
Use Vim, once you configure it you will find it to be perfect! For learning, meh, don't use an IDE as they only cloud the internals that you need to learn.
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I'd argue against that, VI/VIM isn't really suited towards a beginner. I found having a decent GIU IDE helps peopel concentrate on the programming and not using the program, the debuggers also help :)

Oh, and another vote for eclipse

Burnsy
 
Burnsy2023 said:
I'd argue against that, VI/VIM isn't really suited towards a beginner. I found having a decent GIU IDE helps peopel concentrate on the programming and not using the program, the debuggers also help :)

Oh, and another vote for eclipse

Burnsy
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The arguments for /against Vi/Vim have raged for decades, but generally with Vi the learning curve is very shallow i.e. It takes a long time to learn how to use it it efficiently, but once learned, mastery can begin, and it would be 10's of times more efficient to use than any other editor (don't mention emacs)

But the case for a GUI editor, is that although it is easy to use, and anybody can bash out some text, proficient users will begin to get annoyed with lack of configurability, flexibility, and lack of efficiency.


Regardless, before a text editor war breaks out - Everybody should at least familiaise themselves with the basic vi commands, as any unix box in the last 30 years, will have a copy, somewhere, and many programs use the same syntax and keystokes to perform operations.

<edit>The learning curve thing always throws me - is it a steep or shallow curve if something is hard to learn? I say shallow because I imagine the curve to be plotted knowledge against time, therefore it takes a long time for more knowledge to aquire.
 
I understand the arguments for usnig a text editor but I still think that having a debugger that you can use properly helps you learn from your mistakes and you can see how the language works. Tracing calls in the debugger helped me understand how collections such as linked lists work and tracing recursive calls is also a good way to learn about recursion. I know that debuggers have helped me solve problems that would have taken me hours to spot without.
 
Another benefit of an IDE is the marvel that is "Intellisense" or "Code Completion" which is fantasic as both a learning and productivity aid when you're learning the Java class hierarchy. And as someone else mentioned, access to a debugger is pretty much essential.

EDIT: saying that, it is worth having a play with a non-IDE based environment though, so you get an understanding of how to invoke the Java compiler and other tools.
 
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Yeah, I know at lot of people at Uni who have only worked with an IDE and can't compile java code from the command line which is essential knowledge in my opinion.
 
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