Want to learn Java. What editor can I use?

QuadLeo

I want to get back into java again. I started a basic course a good few years ago. I forget most of it know but I want to get back into it. I can't remember what editor and compiler I used to use. But it showed syntax errors by changing text colour etc... There was a compiler built into the application and you could run the java code from the application too once it was compiled. It was on windows but I'm looking for a similiar program for mac os x leopard. Anybody know one? I tried JJ Edit but it wouldn't run.

Thanks

aoraki

Howya Quadleo,
the two that come to mind straight away are Eclipse and NetBeans. Have used both in a work environment, and both are excellent. Of those two, if I was to lean towards one or the other I'd probably go with Eclipse, but that's purely personal preference. Other people swear by Netbeans. Both are available for Mac OS X. I've also heard good things about ItelliJ IDEA, which to my eternal shame I have not gotten around to checking out yet. But might be worth a oul gander.

If you want to go the "purist" route, you can download Textpad .

Best of luck with it either way

Creamy Goodness

my flavour of choice when it comes to coding in java (bear in mind i only done java for 4 months) was to install the JVM and use textpad which had syntax hightlighting and a simple compile java and run java menu options.

QuadLeo

Thanks. I'll check them out.

marco_polo

JEdit is also very good text editor with java syntax highlighting.

TheGreatest

I can recommend the JCreator, once you get the foundation refreshed then you can move to NetBeans

Hobbes

Vote for Eclipse here. Although if starting off you should at least learn how do it manually like notepad/javac/etc.

While IDEs are great they teach you bad habits early on.

Afuera

Purely as a learning tool, I would recommend BlueJ (http://www.bluej.org/). It's a good way to get comfortable with OO and saves you getting bogged down with finacy things in the inital stages of learning Java. After getting comfortable on this you should be able to move on to Eclipse, NetBeans or similar without much of a problem.

sicruise

Hobbes wrote: »

Vote for Eclipse here. Although if starting off you should at least learn how do it manually like notepad/javac/etc.

While IDEs are great they teach you bad habits early on.

I second this!

Skud

Hobbes wrote: »

Vote for Eclipse here. Although if starting off you should at least learn how do it manually like notepad/javac/etc.

While IDEs are great they teach you bad habits early on.

thirded. Textpad to get used to things and then move onto eclipse later. Eclipse is the best tbh

mecco

fourth vote for eclipse, using it a long time now and its shortcuts are great. although if you start from basics with a full IDE you will end up missing some ideas that are done for in the background for you, eg compiling classes into bytecode, that type of thing..

also agree with the bluej comment, especially as a way of getting used to core concepts of objects, methods, etc and how they interact with each other.

Hobbes

Afuera wrote: »

Purely as a learning tool, I would recommend BlueJ (http://www.bluej.org/).

I had a look at the site and this looks really great. However I have tried it on 4 machines now and all it does is crash after 20-30 seconds. Mentions having to disable firewall, which I did for testing and it still crashes.

Will try it again when it becomes stable.

Skud

i used bluej in college when i was learning in first year. Tbh i didnt like it at the time and just used an editor like kate on unix. It wasnt for me, that doesnt mean it isnt good as i'd say i wasnt taught how to use it properly

newbusiness

I spent 3 years in college doing Jave and never used an IDE.

Microsoft Notepad is where it's at... I ought not to have a degree...

Evil Phil

newbusiness wrote: »

I spent 3 years in college doing Jave and never used an IDE.

Microsoft Notepad is where it's at... I ought not to have a degree...

While I can see an advantage to this, in that it teaches people what goes on under the bonnet, there's also an advantage to teaching people how to use at least on of the more popular IDEs out there. I don't know of any companies who don't use an IDE.

ronivek

Whilst text editors are great if you're purely writing code; IDEs are invaluable when building and testing an application. Especially an application that consists of more than a couple of source files.

I guess there's two main approaches a beginner can take;
a) A text editor which will possibly encourage you to learn many of the common methods and classes you'll be using or;
b) An IDE which offers code completion and syntax highlighting so you can spot your mistakes before you go ahead and try and compile and run something. Possibly at the expense of retaining syntax rules and common method calls in memory.

Personally I think the IDE approach is far more forgiving and far less likely to aggravate someone who's trying to learn the language.

In terms of my recommendation; I love IntelliJ IDEA but unfortunately it requires a license and it isn't cheap. Eclipse is good too though; so definitely give it a go.

Hobbes

ronivek wrote: »

Personally I think the IDE approach is far more forgiving and far less likely to aggravate someone who's trying to learn the language.

The difference between using a language, and learning a language.

Calina

I haven't written Java for a while, but I'd plus one Eclipse based on past experience. Netbeans I didn't find so user friendly but it has probably improved in the meantime.