I've got a Unix perspective on tools. I like lots and lots of little tools, each of which does one thing. When I want them to work together, I do the stitching with a script; in extreme cases, I write a little C program that manages the data passing in a more complex manner.
So: I like Jikes. It's just a compiler, and a damn good one -- thorough, fast. People used to tease my and my lowly Solaris JDK by showing me compilation with J++; I'd show them Jikes on any platform and BAM, case closed.
What other
unit tools are you fond of? Better compiler than Jikes? What about your debugger? Dissembler? List 'em here.
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Michael Ernest, co-author of:
The Complete Java 2 Certification Study Guide