On Java

[topaz~]

I'm thinking about getting into Java, but I don't know where to begin. I know several members of this forum use Java regularly, and I'd like to know what tools they regularly use and what would be useful to a beginner.

[Hdx]

JavaDocs: Your Bible
Notepad2: Simple editor for windows
Notepad++: More robust editor for windows
Eclipse: The standard in Java IDEs, All OS's
Java SDK: Of corse the Java SDK.
Then terminal/cmd prompt, javac Simple.
Then you start out with a simple Hello World program:

Code: [Select]

public class HelloWorld{
  public static void main(String[] args){
    System.out.println("Hello World!");
  }
}~Hdx

[Sidoh]

Actually, netbeans is worth giving a try.  The new beta has some features I'm pretty sure Eclipse lacks.  The one I'm most familiar with is the profiling tool, which allows you to see how time is spent when running your program (ie, the amount of time in given methods).

That being said, I'm still using eclipse.  I've had a few annoying problems with whatever GUI implementation netbeans 6 is using (they're easy to get around, but they're still bothersome).

What makes you interested in Java?

[topaz~]

Nothing in particular, but I figured I'd get a head start on it since it's the only language used in the AP CS course offered at my school, and I plan to take it in the fall next year.

[Camel]

The one I'm most familiar with is the profiling tool, which allows you to see how time is spent when running your program (ie, the amount of time in given methods).

http://eclipsecolorer.sourceforge.net/index_profiler.html
http://www.yourkit.com/

[Joe]

Once you get familiar with Java and want to ditch the heavy artillery IDE's, try out TextPad. It's shareware, but you can get around it pretty easily.

[topaz~]

Does anyone use an interactive interpreter that's decent? I've been looking at some, and none of them look to be very good.

[Sidoh]

Nothing in particular, but I figured I'd get a head start on it since it's the only language used in the AP CS course offered at my school, and I plan to take it in the fall next year.

Ah, fair enough.  It's worth noting, though, that most of CS is conceptual.  While introductory classes tend to be more geared toward teaching a language, the heavy bits of even these beginning classes are mostly conceptual.  If you learn the ideas behind some of the simpler algorithms and data structures and know how to implement them in any reasonable language (C++, C#, etc), chances are you'll breeze through AP CS, even if the language it uses is different.  You're right, though, knowing Java would make the class easier.  It'd probably be more boring, though.

http://eclipsecolorer.sourceforge.net/index_profiler.html
http://www.yourkit.com/

Yeah, I was pretty sure that eclipse had a plugin for it.  However, I'm still not convinced either IDE is better than the other.  I don't monkey with Java as a job, though, so...

Once you get familiar with Java and want to ditch the heavy artillery IDE's, try out TextPad. It's shareware, but you can get around it pretty easily.

For any reasonably large sized project, I'd still way rather use Eclipse than an editor and command line compiler.  That's totally opinionated, though.

[Camel]

Second what Sidoh says about Eclipse, and I've even got a real-world example to prove it. At work, we have a few proprietary Java libraries that are shared among a large number of applications. One thing in particular that comes to mind is our persistence layer (database access layer), which is a library of "98% generated" hibernate code for accessing the MySQL backed of the objects model that my group is dedicated to supporting. The ability to develop code with a jitter that can cross-reference code that exists in a completely different project is something that I can't stand to live without, now that I'm spoiled by it.

Eclipse is widely considered to be an essential part of any serious JD's JDK in the industry. I would certainly recommend that anyone master Eclipse as soon as they finish mastering the language, because it blows every other IDE/text editor I've ever used way out of the water, and not just in the code refactoring department.

Also, I like the Eclipse debugger. It's nothing groundbreaking, but it works the same way on my MacBook as it does on my XP machine at work, and on my desktop that runs Ubuntu. I like that I don't have to re-learn how to use a bunch of different IDEs on each of the computers I use for Java development.