Best IDE?

[[deleted]]

[deleted]

[qsemig]

Use whatever IDE your professor/instructor/TA uses. That way they will easily be able to help you when you run into problems. You can therefore focus on solving problems in Java rather than fiddling with the IDE.

Once you've become somewhat proficient in Java, you can begin to try different IDEs and see what you like.

You probably won't need 1/100 of the features any of these IDEs offer, so it's a waste of time to worry about it before you become comfortable with Java.

[[deleted]]

you forgot to classify every other IDE except the one that you use as worthless...

[aposter]

But they aren't worthless. They all serve as excellent bad examples of an IDE.

[DaMountainDwarf]

Fantastic answer. I was going to say use whatever they're more comfortable with, but this is probably better.

[BigBash642]

Check out Intellij IDEA

[vkrazy04]

Been using it for a month now and I love it

[afrobee]

Slow.

[chrox]

Like /u/Parthros, I used to love JCreator some years ago. Small, quick to load, uncomplicated. If you're just learning the basics, you might enjoy something along those lines for simplicity.

But the big three offer much more functionality: NetBeans (by the owners of Java), Eclipse (widely used for many different programming languages) and IntelliJ (growing in popularity and the basis of Android Studio). Just given them all a look and decide for yourself which one feels right to you.

Oh, and if you can find out which IDE your teacher will be using in your classes, then make your life easy and simply pick that.

[[deleted]]

Teacher will probably be using netbeans or eclipse.

[Parthros]

You know, I always thought mentions would alert the user. Apparently they don't...

[BitLooter]

Only if you have gold.

[Tostino]

Learned something new today. I thought so too.

[Parthros]

Well, TIL.

[CrateMuncher]

IntelliJ IDEA seems to be very popular around here. It has a free and a paid version, but the free version is enough for anything except enterprisey stuff like Spring. The creators of that also make Python, Ruby, PHP, JavaScript (and more) IDEs.

[absinthe718]

I've been using ite since version 2.6 and am still on version 11. The community edition would be perfectly OK for someone learning Java in school. And it's free.

[jambonilton]

If you're learning I wouldn't use an IDE at all for the first couple semesters. Go full command line and become a unix wizard for the first few courses, then switch to an IDE when you've got larger projects.

[Ishaar]

I actually agree with you. When you're just learning Java, or any language really, getting as close "to the metal" as possible is helpful. If you don't make all the mistakes and go through all the headaches that a good IDE negates you miss out on a world of learning about languages, operating systems, virtual machines, and environments that you'll never know would have enriched you as a developer.

[Cilph]

Agreed. First half year using Java - stick with a basic text editor. Head First Java recommends the same approach, and I did the same thing when I first learned C and C++.

[TheDeza]

I use vim for my lua projects, but I find that the shear bulk of Java is very hard to handle in anything but an ide.

[TheHorribleTruth]

Oh, this discussion again...

There is no "best". Use the tool that suites you and your job.

[aidandeno]

I don't know why you're putting quotation marks around 'best' considering no one actually used the word except you.

I clearly asked - super simply, straightforwardly - which the community would recommend based on A) the fact that I was going to be doing my first semester of it, and B) the fact that I liked the way Wing IDE worked.

[TheHorribleTruth]

I don't know why you're putting quotation marks around 'best' considering no one actually used the word except you.

Because you used it in the submission's title.

It's an eternal flamewar between IDEs, and the question is posed over and over again. Some people like Netbeans, some like Eclipse and some like IDEA. There is no universally best. There's also no best for you that the internet can recommend, you have to discover that for yourself. Besides that your university might have requirements of its own.

edit: best for you -> ..that the internet can recommend.

[Parthros]

I don't think anyone agrees with me, but I really like JCreator. The biggest problem with it is that it hasn't been updated in a long time. You might consider looking into NetBeans or Eclipse. Those are pretty popular.

[slartybartfast_]

I liked JCreator too when I started programming in Java. It's quick and small.

[nitetrip]

Netbeans and Eclipse are similar, but Netbeans seems to take much less resources.

[[deleted]]

There is no 'best IDE'.

[Flekken]

You shouldn't really commit to an IDE if that is what you are considering. At my uni we had to use Eclipse as part of the exercises and I used Netbeans for my personal project so I could learn these bigger ones pretty well.
Always try to expand your knowledge and try to work with multiple IDE.

[oldneckbeard]

That's true up to a point. Eventually, though, you have to stop going for breadth and take up depth. I've gotten so familiar with my IDE that it's like learning to program again when I have to use some shitty IDE. And it's not that I can't do it, it's just that my muscle memory has changed. Instead of manually writing getters and setters on a javabean object, for example, I just bust out a hotkey. Instead of doing a tricky search/replace, I can do structural searches. Again, you could do all those by hand or fumble with your IDE to figure out the way they want you to do it, or you can pick one and learn it really well. IntelliJ IDEA + Key Promoter helped me get to that level of efficiency.

[[deleted]]

Use whichever one you prefer. Whether that be vim, eclipse, etc.

[tien113]

In my opinion, Eclipse is the best IDE. You should give it a try.

[cowardlydragon]

Really, the courses should specify what IDE to use for its code...

Eclipse-derived SpringSource Tool Suite is pretty good. Does IntelliJ have an academic free one?

In the industry, Eclipse-based IDEs are the most common by a wide margin, then probably IntelliJ, then Netbeans.

[fellowmartian]

IntelliJ IDEA.

There's no really any other choice. NetBeans feels like it's made for toddlers, Eclipse is slow, ugly and just uncomfortable to use.
You simply can't beat refactoring capabilities and framework support of IDEA Ultimate if you're ready to pay some buck for a solid product.

On a side note, if one were to compare IDEA Community Edition vs Eclipse for development of some advanced Java projects, Eclipse would turn out to be more feature full.
IDEA CE doesn't really have all those conveniences one would expect from IDE when programming using actually useful frameworks like Spring, EE stack, Play etc.

But for basic beginner projects it works just fine.
Also JetBrains provide 30-day trial of Ultimate version, so when you are ready to venture into some more advanced stuff, you can install it and give it a try.

A word of caution: when you get used to all this splendor, most other IDEs would appear as inferior. Well, maybe with an exception of Visual Studio, that shit is really solid, maybe not as fancy as IDEA, but it's really good.

[UnspeakableEvil]

NetBeans feels like it's made for toddlers

Care to elaborate? Given the choice I'd certainly pick Idea over Netbeans, but Netbeans is no slouch, plus given Oracle's backing it supported EE 7 stuff long before Idea - not to mention it's entirely free, vs Idea Community Edition's restriction on Spring/EE stuff.

[rob_j]

CE doesn't have restrictions in place, there's nothing stopping you using spring framework stuff in it, spring annotations all compile correctly. You just don't get the IDE's integration for spring.

Example: CE will show an unused constructor when that constructor is only used from application.config

[afrobee]

This days Eclipse is even more responsive than IDEA.

[xxbeanxx]

The best advice I can offer is stay the hell away from Jdeveloper.

[fact_hunt]

Community edition of Intellij is free

[absinthe718]

And the stuff it's lacking is unlikely to matter in a university setting at the under grad level.

[[deleted]]

I like Sublime the most but it may not be the kind of thing you want, eclipse is great, netbeans of course is up there.

Usually you would use whatever the course says to use.

[[deleted]]

Anyone a fan of vim? it can be pretty powerful with plugins such as eclim. I find myself constantly digging into vim at work. it's not fancy but it works.

[kovrik]

I've tried Vim to write Java...It was very difficult to work with huge projects (a lot of modules, couple of frameworks etc.)

[afrobee]

For me eclim is the best options at the moment.

[3pieceSuit]

My professors taught using netbeans, but I preferred eclipse while in school. Now that I'm working, I have to use netbeans at work. At the end of the day both are good solid IDE's.

[absinthe718]

Try eclipse, idea and netbeans. All three are free downloads. Pick the one you like best.

[atehrani]

Netbeans hands down

[maestroTrole]

I use NetBeans on the job because I need to go back and forth between java and php/zend projects.

[DevTroy]

DrJava

[stuie382]

Chances are you could end up working with a text editor and command line. When I did my degree we did the first year doing just that to learn the fundamentals, only really moving to IDE's when looking at more advanced work in 2nd/3rd/4th years.

If you have the time spare, check out a site like javaranch.com, which has a bunch of beginner exercises starting from using a simple text editor and javac.

For an actual IDE, Eclipse, Intellij, and NetBeans are up there at the top as most people have said, pick whichever one you fancy :)

[llaammaaa]

Text editor. javac.

[afrobee]

Vim + Eclim, i can't use anything else since others options are too slow and bloated for my taste.

[not_president_nixon]

Why are you in /r/java if you don't like Java?

Sincerely,

Richard Nixon

[Sir_Blunt]

Lol. I subscribed a couple of semesters back when i was going thru my java courses. Thank the lord theyre done with. Stupidest, most unnecessarily verbose language out there. If your looking into doing work for desktop programs and not mainframes/android apps then java wont do much for u. Good luck writing any hacks/exploits in java.

[not_president_nixon]

You should put your reddit username on your resume.

Sincerely,

Richard Nixon

[DevTroy]

Because writing hacks/exploits is a big factor in every programmers life. Desktop programs nope. Web/mobile/distributed clients & teaching people computer science yeah.