The best IDE for the work place is ???????

[JeF Ald]

I am learning java at a pretty good pace currently i am using JCreator to develop my apps i have started to use Jbuilder now i see alot of apps on the market which one is used the most in the workplace i have been told Jbuilder would be better for me to learn thanks for all your help

[Michael Yuan]

I just use VI and command line JDK tools. But I guess this is not the answer you are looking for.
From what I heard, IBM's eclipse is quite good:
http://www.eclipse.org/

[Doug Wang]

There are several discussions that have gone on about IDE on IDE's and other tools forum.
Just do a search on IDE(do select search in "Subject only"), you will see a lot of posts from people and what their opinions are, experiences they've had, etc.

[Shubhrajit Chatterjee]

It depends on what are you developing...
1. For beginners I would suggest textpad test editor. This will enable you to learn.
2. For developing components, beans, JSPs etc... I would suggest textpad once again.
3. For Swing intensive projects VisualAge should perhaps be better.

[Younes Essouabni]

Since you are learning the language, I suggest you a text editor!!

[Angela Poynton]

I totally agree that the best way to learn java is to use a text based editor that has syntax hightlighting such as textpad.
However at work, if I am working a team development we currently use Visual Age which has the advantage of using Team development tools, remote repositories, ability to link with Rational Rose to reverse/forward enginner code and excellent Versioning capabilities.
However it does have an awful habit of either completely destroying our computers, having an awful lot of features we don't use because, being highly memory intensive and slow as hell!! Also while it's cool having the ability to link to rational Rose, having both applications open at the same time does tend to make our computers complain about a lack of Virtual Memory rather a lot
So we currently have a number of people tryng out some new alternatives ... I believe netBeans is the current favourite. I use Forte For Java at home which is based on NetBeans, so I'm all in favour of this one.
Another text editor I've been playing with it Jext http://www.jext.org which has been written in Java. It can be a little slow but has some nice features.

[Dave Vick]

JeF
Welcome to the Java Ranch, we hope you’ll enjoy visiting as a regular however,
your name is not in keeping with our naming policy here at the ranch. Please change your display name to an appropriate name as shown in the policy.
Thanks again and we hope to see you around the ranch!!

[Jason Kretzer]

Besides TextPad, which I used for several months and really like, I would suggest two others: jGrasp and JCreator. JCreator is simply the best free editor out there. It is a pure text editor with syntax highlighting and project management tools. jGrasp is from Auburn University and has a lot of really neat abilities aside from syntax highlighting and project management such as:
Syntax highlighting for many languages(C,C++,Ada)
Can use g++ compiler on linux and MSVC++ compiler on windows to compile C++
Control Structure Diagram (CSD)
Complexity Profile Graph (CPG)
UML generator
Javadoc generator
I have a fairly good list of FREE IDE's on my site at http://alia.iwarp.com/java_ides.html
HTH,

[arun sahni]

I think for learning TextPad is better suited and you can customize it to work well for your needs.

[Doug Wang]

I vote for TextPad as a learning tool too. When you are familiar with Java, moving on to eclipse (a marvelous open source IDE with many XP features built in) should be a good idea.

[alex earnshaw]

Another (windows) editor that I really like is Context. It has syntax highlighting for numerous languages including Java. It is freeware. Have a look at it at Context Homepage
Alex

[Rick Reumann]

JEdit is a free editor that is really awesome. With the plugins you can make it as a complex an editor as you like. www.jedit.org. (Even recommened by the editor in Java Developers Journal).
I dropped using NetBeans and Forte and switched to JEdit. Unless you are doing so major GUI work or EJB stuff you don't need all the bulk most IDEs come with.
I also use UltraEdit which is really awesome and is like TextPad but has many more features available yet still super quick and lighweight. I think it's shareware though. I ended up buying it for like 30 bucks and was the best computer purchase I ever made.

[jason adam]

There is a whole other forum dedicated to this, you can find it here.
Do a search, several other posts about this very topic, and some good suggestions. Plus, if you do find one you like, you can do some searches and find potential problems you might encounter that others have experienced.

[Vicki Kech]

Thank you to Jason for the list --nice to see all that. I'm just getting started & have been using Notepad for my homework. JBuilder looks amazing but might be overkill for me at this point.

[Selvan tiru]

To learn JFC and GUI
JBuilder IDE is easy to use .... in the beginning
compared to VJ. VJ IDE for JFC gets more cluttered.
--Selvan

[Jason Kretzer]

To learn JFC and GUI
JBuilder IDE is easy to use .... in the beginning

I really don't want to start an IDE war here, maybe some nice Bartender will move this to the IDE forum
But...
I feel the best way to learn JFC and GUI programming is to hand code it yourself. If you do it using a visual interface like in JBuilder or Forte or VAJ, you only learn how to make your IDE program not how the actual programming mechincs work. I strongly feel if you want to learn--hand code, if you already know the mechanics of what is going on and need to be more efficient and productive--use JBuilder, etc.
Just my two coppers,

[Greg Brouelette]

I love Jext from www.jext.org
Try the block comment and uncomment feature. Like it? I wrote that.
I think Jext gives me just the right amount of extra features (The Hypertyper, Jext FE, XML Browser and Code2HTML plugins are awesome!) without the downsides of too huge, bloated IDE's.
And since Jext is itself written in Java it works exactly the same in Windows and Linux (which is why I started using it in the first place). It's been my sole editor that I use at work every day for 3 years now.

[frank davis]

Oracle's JDeveloper is free to download at the Oracle site and its got rave reviews. I heard it was based on Jbuilder, and the main difference is its free!

[Selvan tiru]

Jdeveloper 3 runs only on NT. I tried on winX and
win2k, It's unstable

[henry wu]

Definitely Eclipse...
www.eclipse.org

[Axel Janssen]

what about the big brother of eclipse Websphere studio trial edition?
http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/nlredirects/r-w1121.html?np-112
I just finished this tutorial. And o.k. there were some bugs with the form-action-parameter-URL (or I made a mistake) but it made sense.
Maybe its good idea to start with eclipse. But one might consider to move to s.th. with more features.

Axel
[ March 28, 2002: Message edited by: Axel Janssen ]

[Jorge Phillips]

Emacs and JDE (Java Development Environment for Emacs) constitute in my opinion an excellent IDE for both beginners and professionals. They combine the best in structured text editors and a simple yet very powerful IDE. You can find more info about Emacs and JDE in the Emacs FAQ at the following URL:
http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
EMACS/JDE runs on Unix, Linux and Wintel boxes. Better even, it is free!

[Tom Hennigan]

As in most cases, the best IDE for you is the one that you can use most conveniently.
I agree that early Java learning should start with a basic text editor (even NotePad) and the command line compiler. Mostly for speed.
Sooner or later, though, you will move to a more full-featured development environment. There are many choices --- most of us use the one that our employer provides. In this way, you learn to use several over time.

[Ahmed Matar]

I have used a number of IDEs: JBuilder(short period of time), JPadPro, JCreator Pro and I played around with Forte. JBuilder is excellent! It has every single feature you can think of and more, but it will cost you. I used version 3. Howvever, I stopped using JBuilder because I like to be in full control of my code and hate code generation. I have used JPadPro www.modelworks.com for over 3 years and I loved it! I have now switched to Jcreator Pro www.jcreator.com, which suits me a bit more.
Ahmed

[Andres Gonzalez]

How about EditPlus??? haven't seen anyone mentioning it .
i like it....

[matt hooker]

Hey, why hasn't anyone mentioned CodeWarrior ... ?
It is a damn fine tool. I also agree that the use of a text editor is more likely to aid in learning to write Java, albeit rather slow and annoying if doing any heavy GUI development ...

[Rob Ross]

CodeWarrior is ok, but it's really a better C++ IDE than a Java IDE. I've used Visual J++, CodeWarrior, Symantec Visual Cafe, JBuilder, and now NetBeans.
I really like JBuilder, but I'm also really enjoying NetBeans.
I think the bottom line is there are many, many good tools out there. You'll just have to experiment with a couple and see what works best for you.

[Mike Whitehorne]

If you are dabling or just learning, the text editors and command line tools are usually much more appropriate. It is normal to want to try out a slick IDE but the details of dealing with IDE tend to distract you from learning. If you are going to soon enter a production environment where your company has a std IDE, then perhaps you might start with that tool.