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cheerios · Nov 17, 2003, 03:28 PM

I'm searching for an IDE for java. requirements include syntax highlighting, the ability to take in command line arguments, and a debugger. The "put some output here to see what it's doin" trick isn't working for me, but my program works off of System.in.read() and I have only gotten that to work from the command line currently.

already checked XCode, I can't see how to give it an argument, and intelliJ, which, btw is not an impresive application. Also tried eclipse, which I can codein, but can't get the run command configured correctly. this is seriously frustrating me, any help appreciated...

Turias · Nov 17, 2003, 04:27 PM

I haven't used Xcode, yet, but you could specify command-line options somewhere in the Targets pane in Project Builder. It's kind of annoying, but you have to change it in the Targets section each time you want to change command line options.

Sorry if this isn't much help. I would check out Xcode if I could, but I'm at work, away from my OS X machine.

Let me know if you can't find it and I will look tonight.

benguru · Nov 17, 2003, 04:41 PM

Well I use Eclipse on my windows and it is good. It works great on a mac too but it looks horrible. You can find it here.
Link

depolitic · Nov 18, 2003, 03:11 AM

It seems you are running out of options. The only one you did not lists was netbeans found at netbeans.org. Very popular and feature rich. Also the latest JBuilder is coming soon, the foundation version which is free, for J2SE and non commercial work. I have heard some good reviews from it wait a week and try it out. I sure will.

If that does not meet your needs have you looked at Jedit found at Jedit.org a simple Java IDE, but with many of the feature you may need. Plus it has a huge selection of plug-ins that make it a really feature rich IDE without the complexity of other IDE's.

Arkham_c · Nov 18, 2003, 10:42 AM

The only other ones not yet mentioned:

1) Oracle JDeveloper
2) Sun ONE Studio
3) JBuilder 10 (coming soon)

Personally, I still use BBEdit, the terminal, and ant build.xml files to do my java development. I keep looking for a compelling IDE though. The Oracle JDeveloper is close, and Sun ONE Studio is closer still (but lacks a Mac installer).

Turias · Nov 18, 2003, 10:49 AM

Well, another one that has not been mentioned is BlueJ. I would not recommend it, though. I've always had problems with it.

PBG4 User · Nov 18, 2003, 04:09 PM

I personally like bluej for testing classes / methods. Definitely not as heavyweight as some of the other packages out there, but it's definitely useful for debugging.

nica · Nov 19, 2003, 11:15 AM

xcode does this but it's flaky (sometimes works sometimes doesn't)
I think Projetc Builder might do it better but i could be wrong.

Turias · Nov 19, 2003, 11:35 AM

Originally posted by PBG4 User:
I personally like bluej for testing classes / methods. Definitely not as heavyweight as some of the other packages out there, but it's definitely useful for debugging.

I agree that BlueJ has some nice, easy ways to test basic methods and classes. Unfortunately, BlueJ has crashed more times than any other program I have ever used.

DaGuy · Nov 20, 2003, 02:05 AM

http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/ma...4/eclipse.html

ids · Nov 21, 2003, 11:57 AM

--snip

already checked XCode, I can't see how to give it an argument, and intelliJ, which, btw is not an impresive application. Also tried eclipse, which I can codein, but can't get the run command configured correctly. this is seriously frustrating me, any help appreciated... [/B]

I code JAVA for a living & Eclipse is my weapon of choice. And for the price

the code completion & refactoring take some beating.
Setting up run configurations can take a bit of work, what is the problem you are having.

If you are reading system in, have you thought about just dropping to a shell, and running your code there. Just because you have an IDE, does not mean that you should be tied permanently to it. I use Eclipse for the coding & debugging, but when it comes to application builds, and running stuff up, I tend to drop to a shell with ant for building, and plain old java, for running stuff.

Turias · Nov 21, 2003, 12:01 PM

Originally posted by ids:
I code JAVA for a living & Eclipse is my weapon of choice. And for the price the code completion & refactoring take some beating.
Setting up run configurations can take a bit of work, what is the problem you are having.

If you are reading system in, have you thought about just dropping to a shell, and running your code there. Just because you have an IDE, does not mean that you should be tied permanently to it. I use Eclipse for the coding & debugging, but when it comes to application builds, and running stuff up, I tend to drop to a shell with ant for building, and plain old java, for running stuff.

I'd like to just ditto what ids said. Everything he mentioned could have come right out of my own mouth.

Eclipse is where it's at. And ant. And the shell.

cheerios · Nov 26, 2003, 01:51 AM

I have been using the console. That and vim were my weapons of choice all through my intro to java course. My problem is I don't know how to work a commandline debugger. happily the problem has been somewhat solved in that i FINALLY found the dang bug that I was searching for, but... my project is swelling daily, and I REALLY want/need the use of a "real" debugger.

DaGuy · Nov 27, 2003, 01:16 AM

Originally posted by cheerios:
I have been using the console. That and vim were my weapons of choice all through my intro to java course. My problem is I don't know how to work a commandline debugger. happily the problem has been somewhat solved in that i FINALLY found the dang bug that I was searching for, but... my project is swelling daily, and I REALLY want/need the use of a "real" debugger.

Eclipse has an awesome debugger. It will screw up every once in a while but it's a real winner most of the time. I would love to see something like that in Xcode at some point.

cheerios · Nov 28, 2003, 05:59 AM

*sigh*
let's try this again.
me. using Eclipse. liking eclipse.
cannot convince eclipse to take command line input. writing an interpreter for a language. need to be able to take input over stdin. so:
* I like eclipse. i like eclipse's debugger
*I cannot use them since i can't get them to take input.

am I making sense?

DaGuy · Nov 28, 2003, 08:54 PM

Originally posted by cheerios:
*sigh*
let's try this again.
me. using Eclipse. liking eclipse.
cannot convince eclipse to take command line input. writing an interpreter for a language. need to be able to take input over stdin. so:
* I like eclipse. i like eclipse's debugger
*I cannot use them since i can't get them to take input.

am I making sense?

You need a window so that you can enter stdin? Well, have you thought about writing a small swing app just to pop a window so that you can enter the commands? I know... This is what you want Eclipse to do but it wouldn't be too hard if you wanted to implement one yourself. The other approach is to investigate the vast library of Eclipse plug-ins.

Catfish_Man · Nov 28, 2003, 10:34 PM

darkmatter · Dec 2, 2003, 01:27 PM

xemacs

Seb G · Dec 2, 2003, 07:34 PM

Eclipse on my machines reads stdinput from the Console view. I usually have to click (i.e. activate) the view after launching my progs, but then everyting is fine.

i_wolf · Dec 3, 2003, 11:02 PM

Hi guys,
Im fairly recent to the world of Java Development under OS X.
Any java i did before i used Windows and edit plus and command line to compile. This was perfect for me.
I have tried XCode but i found that the code completion didn't work for me. (it was actually turned on in preferences!!!

) so i don't think im doing anything wrong.
I tried BBEdit but there seamed to me to be minimal syntax highlighting and no code completion. I also tried Jedit, Eclipse etc... but neither will install. I am using JDK 1.4.2 RC1 from Apple at the moment. Both work fine however under JDK 1.4.1 but i don't reallyy want to roll back to JDK 1.4.1
Can any one here recommend me a good java editor with code completion, syntax highlighting that is good and that is fast enough not to be an infuriating experience on a G4 933. When i tried eclipse on said machine under JDK 1.4.1 i found it very slow in comparison to the other editors out there.
What im looking for is editplus on the mac... am i asking too much????
Any help much appreciated.
i_wolf

coolmacdude · Dec 10, 2003, 12:00 AM

Originally posted by cheerios:
already checked XCode, I can't see how to give it an argument

Not sure about Xcode since I haven't upgraded to Panther yet, but in Project Builder, that is under a window called Edit Active Executable.

bousozoku · Dec 10, 2003, 12:57 AM

jGrasp from Auburn Univ. works well for most of the things you would do at the command line and it's quite sensible and light.

I've also used Sun's NetBeans lately but just for GUI development as it has a number of templates available for specific purposes.

Eclipse is fine if you're doing development that you're going to put on a server and test.

Xcode is not meant for much other than Objective-C development.

coolmacdude · Dec 10, 2003, 01:32 AM

Originally posted by bousozoku:
Xcode is not meant for much other than Objective-C development.

Wrong.

Objective C, C, and C++ all work great with Xcode.

Java works acceptably well, and will get better as Apple adds more support for it in the future.

i_wolf · Dec 10, 2003, 12:37 PM

yes xcode seams to be really really excellent when it comes to objective c, c++ . With those languages it has auto popup code completion, sense which classes im referencing and pops up the methods that im referencing etc....
However when it comes to Java, i was expecting the same level of functionality and ihave to admit i was a bit disappointed. It doesn't auto pop up classes and methods like other IDE's do, and i would have thought that it woudl work with java the way it does for C, ++ and obj C. About the only code completion i have seen for java in Xcode was the import statement!... with maybe public ,private and class keyworks autocompleting. bar that nada.
Maybe im doing something wrong however. Guess its back to BBEDIT for the time being. its starting to really grow on me actually!
regards
i_wolf

Dr.Michael · Dec 11, 2003, 09:35 AM

I used CodeWarrior for a long time. It works great, has a nice editor, a gui designer and a working debugger.
BUT: They bring their own Java vm and their own compiler. So, if you update your java version, you have to update CodeWarrior (which always is a 400 Euro/USD investment). And CodeWarrior stores gui design information in a separate file. Some of these files have been damaged after a CW update in my projects. Very bad!
Does anyone know a way to use javac with CodeWarrior? That could avoid these frequent updates and make it a good tool.

Thats why I wrote a little expansion to javac to make it comfortable for the commandline and edit my code with BBEdit. No debugger.

I tried Eclipse. Its alright but needs a lot of screen real estate. And has no drag and drop gui designer. I don't really like it.

Similar with jBuilder. Its a great tool, but needs also a big screen. But the ability to parse code for gui components and show them in a drag and drop gui designer is a killer. But the price is very very high.

beamso · Jan 1, 2004, 09:53 PM

Originally posted by i_wolf:

However when it comes to Java, i was expecting the same level of functionality and ihave to admit i was a bit disappointed. It doesn't auto pop up classes and methods like other IDE's do, and i would have thought that it woudl work with java the way it does for C, ++ and obj C. About the only code completion i have seen for java in Xcode was the import statement!... with maybe public ,private and class keyworks autocompleting. bar that nada.

There is a Java app called jEdit which you may be interested in. It can be configured with plugins to have code completion. I couldn't get it to work though

.

i_wolf · Jan 2, 2004, 09:55 AM

yes thanks for the Jedit suggestion. I tried it. Unfortunately the code completion seams real 'slow' as in it seams to take a while to kick in while you are typing, a lot of the time you have finished typing the command by the time it pops up. It would be perfect if XCode's 1.1 code completion worked for Java as well.

depolitic · Jan 2, 2004, 09:42 PM

JEdits code compete works wel form me, their are a few plug in that do the job for you have a look at this page.

http://plugins.jedit.org/list.php?category=5

the one I use is Dot Complete it works well.

Just download and unzip so that you have a jar file. Then place the jar in the jar dir. found in the JEdit app dir.

Restart JEdit, all will be cool.

i_wolf · Jan 3, 2004, 12:41 AM

thanks a million for that suggestion. I downloaded that plugin and it works much much better than the one i was using.
Works great actually. im starting to like jedit.
I also found a cool little java ide tool on the apple download site... jblue. its freeware, and it has a lovely UML tool that automatically generates based on classes you create, or you can create the classes in UML and it creates the skeleton in java for you. quite nice.
I also integrates quite well with the command line compiler, although again its start up time even on a G5 dual 2Ghz, is a bit of a joke. However i could say the same about a million other IDE's on the x86 platform that are also Java based!
The biggest problem i see with most of these java IDE's is that they are written in java. Which unfortunately means they are slow; cross platform yes, but slow.
Does anyone know of an IDE for mac a bit like JCreator on PC... its written in C++ and flies along even on P3 500MHz???
In the mean time Jedit once loaded is quite cool. Thanks again depolitic and co,,,!!!

absmiths · Jan 6, 2004, 04:56 AM

Here're my .02$. I use Ant to compile, and XCode/PB to edit Java files, and BBEdit for all other files. For debugging, I invoke from the command-line using the JPDA debugger, and use Bugseeker2 from Karmira for remote debugging. That is hands down the best Java debugger I have ever seen, and it is written in Java itself so I can use it on Windows, Linux and OS X.

gperks · Jan 9, 2004, 10:10 AM

Well, off the topic of debugging, nobody has mentioned user interface building. Interface Builder is great, but doesn't help with cross-platform applications. Plug: for easy creation and maintenance, check out Foam at http://www.computersinmotion.com.

The demonstration movies are worth a watch (or two :-)

depolitic · Jan 15, 2004, 06:14 PM

I have been looking to move from the terminal to a full IDE, and having used and tested all major Java IDE's on the market, and having used a bunch of them I have decided to go with Intellij IDEA, out of all IDE's I have used it is fast, has the most amazing features, that has improved my abilities as a Java programmer. Fast pop up, and code complete, responsive interface. Great compiler and debugging tools. Full support for Mac OSX, unlike Borland who snubbed us Mac developers with JBuilderX.

It is a commercial IDE, but you can get it much cheaper then many commercial IDE's. I recommend every committed Java developer download it and have a look at Intellij IDEA. Their is a one month free trial available.