Non-IDE development

I have been starting Java (with 'Head First Java', which i love!) and I am committed to not using JCreator until I have truly learned the language. However, I am torn between my desire to learn Java properly and my laziness to space over 8 times to right a statement due to the fact that I am using notepad. Are there any good, *free* text editors that do auto-tabbing?

Thanks guys,
Guy

you don't have to space over 8 times... two or three is valid.

as for free ones, i think you can download a student version of Eclipse, but it might be more than what you want...

I've been using Jedit for years. The main download is a simple text editor with contex highlighting and formatting but you can jazz it up with plugins as you need more functionality.

I used Textpad for a long time before moving on to eclipse. I really liked it at the time.
While I think learning Java before you start using an IDE is definatly the right approach I don't think I could go back to a simple text editor.

My advice, make sure you understand the issues revolving around classpath, creating jars (with manifest file), packages, compiling, and maybe profiling (although I might skip the profiling and look at some of the IDE plugin profilers), all from the command line, as quickly as you can and then hook yourself up with a good IDE.

A second vote for TextPad, although UltraEdit is also a very useful text editor.

Even DOS 'edit' is better for coding than notepad in my opinion.

The freeware version of JCreator is a very good simple editor.

Originally posted by Marilyn de Queiroz:

Even DOS 'edit' is better for coding than notepad in my opinion.

I agree, its great for writing small classes to test something directly from the command line.

I also like EditPlus alot too as a quick generic editor, as well as Eclipse as my IDE.

i started with TextPad (excelent indeed!!) and now i do like eclipse a lot.

But in the meanwhile i found one quite good (at least at the time), named Gel.

Give this one a try too (its free).

As to eclipse (and i'm recent to java) i never heard about a student version but for sure its absolutely free and has lots of plugins.

But as someone said maybe its a bit too much for what you want.

There is no student version of eclipse, it's just free. It is a very powerful IDE, it saves me many hours a day, I don't think I could really do my job without something like it (well it would take me close to 10 times as long). There are other good IDE's out there, I don't want to start an IDE war (there are enough of those here).

That said, IMO it is worth the time spent to learn Java from the command line with a basic text editor like Textpad/UltraEdit/JEdit.