best IDE for java frameworks? question for Neal Ford

[John Holme]

what are the best IDEs for java development using frameworks? I have heard of NetBeans, IDEA and Eclipse, but I continue to use a text editor for my coding. could you please discuss the advantages/disadvantages of any IDEs with which you are familiar?
thanks,
John Holme

[Neal Ford]

John -

what are the best IDEs for java development using frameworks? I have heard of NetBeans, IDEA and Eclipse, but I continue to use a text editor for my coding. could you please discuss the advantages/disadvantages of any IDEs with which you are familiar?

I really like JBuilder, with my second choice being Eclipse. We use both in our office, and some of our developers prefer Eclipse. Life is too short to write XML configuration documents by hand!

[Alex Cano]

I've used Eclipse and IDEA for building both web aps and general java coding and I think that Eclipse is great IDE givien it's price (free).
IDEA has better code refactoring and a few other minor features that are nicer but for building web aps, Eclipse has great plug ins for servlet container integration and good version control stuff built in. In my opinion, I think it's easier to use for running, editing, and de-bugging web aps and would recommend it.

[Surasak Leenapongpanit]

I've used Eclipse and IDEA for building both web aps and general java coding and I think that Eclipse is great IDE givien it's price (free).
IDEA has better code refactoring and a few other minor features that are nicer but for building web aps, Eclipse has great plug ins for servlet container integration and good version control stuff built in. In my opinion, I think it's easier to use for running, editing, and de-bugging web aps and would recommend it.

I agree with you those reasons using Eclipse and IDEA Intellij.

[Alan Salewski]

Originally posted by John Holme:
... but I continue to use a text editor for my coding. could you please discuss the advantages/disadvantages of any IDEs with which you are familiar?
thanks,
John Holme

I have used oracle's jdeveloper a bit. Among two million other things (most of which I don't use) it has a built-in proxy server that allows you to easily watch network traffic; this can be invaluable when tracking down SOAP interop problems and you want to see exactly what the protocol conversation looks like. I've used other, similar tools, but the one in jdeveloper seems more polished to me.
On the whole, however, I find GNU Emacs (with JDE, camelCase-mode, and a boatload of other tweaks) to be the tool of choice for coding, debugging, and browsing through code. It's also the only editor I know of that will allow me to edit a file locally and transparently save it, check it into CVS, etc, across the net (tunnelling through multiple hosts over ssh via TRAMP). Since I edit files in lots of languages, it has the benefit of providing a consistent environment for coding C, Perl, and Java. Another cool feature is that you can get a command shell within an editor window (any system shell, or the eshell built into emacs) which is very handy once you train your hands to know the keystrokes for jumping back and forth between windows.
Emacs used to have a reputation of being bloated and slow, but compared with today's IDE's it's fast and its size quite reasonable.
AFAIK, there isn't any GUI design capability in emacs (though such a thing could be added). I've heard of people using eclipse in conjunction with emac s, which may be a way to get the best of both worlds.