tired of using notepad and command prompt...

12/13/2009 10:20:02 AM

Try Netbeans or Eclipse for starters. Bit of a learning curve for either, but, makes life a bit easier.

12/13/2009 10:52:43 AM

eclipse
/thread

12/13/2009 11:08:00 AM

Eclipse is the java ide that most people will recommend. I've used Netbeans at work for a few years and it has gotten 1000x better since the first few versions(currently it's at 6.8). I've recently switched to eclipse since it runs faster and is the default development environment for Android and I love it. The good thing about eclipse(on Windows) is that it can be saved to a folder and run on any computer that has the JDK installed where netbeans has to be installed on each computer.

If you've never used an IDE before and are only programming for a class, I would recommend starting with netbeans since its official tutorials and community can easily be accessed on the netbeans site and it has a good gui builder. If you're going to be using java for a long time then you should invest time learning in eclipse now.

Eclipse - http://www.eclipse.org
Netbeans - http://www.netbeans.org

12/13/2009 12:11:44 PM

eclipse is the most popular as of now, but NetBeans is another really good one.

12/13/2009 12:13:17 PM

I use eclipse at work. Also use maven and Jetty which has proven to be a much better experience than using Ant and Tomcat.

12/13/2009 2:37:15 PM

VIM

12/14/2009 1:17:32 AM

having compiled programs in both VIM (by force) and Eclipse (by force), i will say Eclipse is very nice.

12/14/2009 2:23:28 AM

Probably not the best place for this but I didn't feel it deserved another thread.

Is anyone familiar with WSO2 and/or setting environment variables in win7? For some reason
'echo %JAVA_HOME%' will not display the path I have set.

12/14/2009 9:03:18 AM

In windows there are environmental variables for both the user and the system. Hit start and type environment and it will bring up the old system props window with the environmental variables. User vars up top, system at the bottom. Settings here persist across all console sessions.

If you open a command prompt and just do 'set' with no parameters, it will show you all variables currently set along with their values. Any changes made from the system properties panel will not show up until you open a new command prompt. You can also set a variable temporarily by doing 'set var_name value'. Anything you set via 'set' is only valid for that current command prompt session.


re: the op: Use eclipse. Nothing is as good and there are tons of handy plugins.

12/14/2009 10:01:28 AM

yeah i should have mentioned that I've set the path in the environment variable window on both the user and the system to be sure.

it accepts it, but echo %JAVA_HOME% just returns
%JAVA_HOME%

12/14/2009 10:07:00 AM

did you name the variable JAVA_HOME or %JAVA_HOME%?

12/14/2009 10:08:52 AM

JAVA_HOME

I tried rebooting as well and setting different "TEMP_TEST" variables and such. It seems like it might be a win7 issue?

[Edited on December 14, 2009 at 10:12 AM. Reason : ]

12/14/2009 10:11:45 AM

idk. Thats wierd. I just created JAVA_HOME in my user environmentals and it worked

Are you running a script or something ahead of time that might be deleting it?

12/14/2009 10:13:47 AM

i like textpad...

12/14/2009 10:18:03 AM

i used textpad for the longest time, but then switched to eclipse b/c it made stuff like svn and war development so much easier.

12/14/2009 10:31:24 AM

fixed.

[Edited on December 14, 2009 at 11:16 AM. Reason : .]

12/14/2009 11:09:00 AM

Eclipse is what google recommends for android developers... I know NOTHING about programming and was able to write an app using it, it obviously is the best, ha.

12/15/2009 10:36:42 AM

Eclipse and Netbeans are really great.

Eclipse advantage:
Low overhead, fast (very fast), runs anywhere java is supported, language extensible, AWESOME debug tools

Netbeans advantage:
Embedded command database, boatloads of error checking (near real time), constant realtime compiling, language extensible.

However, this also means Netbeans will eat even a moderately old machine, has to be physically installed (no programming at a coffee shop from your USB drive) and takes for freaking ever to load.

For what it's worth I use Eclipse on my linux laptop (ubuntu on 1.8ghz pentium M), and have both installed on my desktop. For java programming I find myself using NetBeans for quick programs and Eclipse for longer works (that way I can sync to laptop and work on both machines.)

Also, NetBeans is a freaking beast to move to another machine and keep working. It's project structure is great if you have 150 files and 24 developers, but for small stuff it's more hassle than it's worth.

12/15/2009 1:11:36 PM

[quote]Embedded command database, boatloads of error checking (near real time), constant realtime compiling,quote]

eclipse has all this :-P. Although, the real thing that makes eclipse shine the most is its plugin system.

12/15/2009 1:14:01 PM

^ah, true, but it can't be turned off (to my knowledge) in NB... making it drag on my old lappy

12/15/2009 2:47:24 PM

Most of the Google APIs use Eclipse as a foundation so if you want to use any of those (GWT, App Engine) then Eclipse is your best bet. And Eclipse has some good features and easily integrates with ANT and JUnit. There are also plug-ins on top of nearly every Java technology of with which you could come up. One of the source trees I work in a lot bombs out on Netbeans. I spent a week trying to get it to work, but I guess it's just too nasty and large. Eclipse has no trouble with it.

You should never ever use Notepad. You need line numbers or ability to go to a line and quickly open new files. VI(M) or Emacs would be a much better alternative.

1/4/2010 6:34:05 AM

if you don't use eclipse you're gay

[/thread]

1/4/2010 8:06:11 AM

Quote :

"You should never ever use Notepad. You need line numbers or ability to go to a line "

Notepad can do both of those.

1/4/2010 8:16:59 AM

obviously not a notepad power user

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 8:18 AM. Reason : ctrl + g money]

1/4/2010 8:18:02 AM

notepad is still the best text editor on any platform

1/4/2010 8:30:12 AM

you should never use notepad for Java development when eclipse is free.

1/4/2010 9:51:04 AM

Can notepad do it in one keystroke + line number? Regular expressions for fast refactoring are also a god send. You can do that in both eclipse and the command line not so much in notepad

1/4/2010 5:10:20 PM

^ Ctrl+g

Eclipse > *

[Edited on January 4, 2010 at 7:04 PM. Reason : ]

1/4/2010 7:03:47 PM

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/

!!

1/4/2010 8:54:25 PM