Is there a cross platform desktop application IDE as good as Visual Studio?

[gregulator]

We have an internal database used for logging test results, some are automated by machines, some data entry is done by hand. We are mostly a Windows company, but there have been some requests that the entry, or perhaps just the analysis side be a web app (a few OSX users).

I write a ton of programs in Visual Studio (C#) and am really pushing just to do this. Is there anything out there that is cross platform that is comparable? The application will constantly need to be updated as the database evolves so I need something that is really easy to edit the UI as well as the back end. Java obviously comes to mind as a desktop alternative, but last time I used eclipse or netbeans I wanted to punch myself. I feel the same way about any web technologies I used in the past, layout and wysiwyg editors leave a lot to be desired. Anything change recently in this space?

Write once, run away!

 

[KB]

If you are familiar with Visual Studio and like Visual Studio then the answer is NO.

Sharp Develop (not cross platform anymore) is a cool project I check out every once in a while but still not as full featured as VS.

 

[Merad]

WinForms applications can run under Mono: http://www.mono-project.com/docs/gui/winforms/

JetBrains IDEs are generally the best aside from VS, IMO. I don't think they include GUI editors, though. Netbeans 8 is decent and has a fairly good Java GUI editor.

Honestly if a WinForms app under Mono doesn't work, I would probably bit the bullet and do a web site using ASP.Net MVC. No, there isn't a GUI editor for it, but with libraries like bootstrap it isn't terribly hard to make a decent looking website.

 

[brianmanahan]

Java obviously comes to mind as a desktop alternative, but last time I used eclipse or netbeans I wanted to punch myself.

that's funny, i felt the same exact way the last time i used Visual Studio (i think 2013).

most types of automatic refactoring i wanted to do weren't supported unless i bought freaking Resharper. uh, no thanks. eclipse supports this stuff out of the box.

a lot of it probably comes down to what you're used to. i actually prefer jetbrains IDEs (webstorm, intellij IDEA) over eclipse now, but i still use all the eclipse keybinds.

 

[sao123]

ASP.net Webforms is actually fairly easy and quick to develop in if you are familiar with C#. i have been coding in VS 2012 for several years, and with the wide number of plugins available, life is Grand!

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Here's what you need to do.

You need to come up wit ha list of requirements for what your tools and languages have to do. Then you have to find several tools as options. Then determine what tools and languages best suite your business requirements. Do all this from a business case perspective. What will path A cost, path B, and path C. Don't be loyal to a langauge.

If you can narrow it down to 2 languages or IDE's do a stress test of some sort.

But here's the bottom line. I have no idea if you are a company of 10 or 1000. I work for a very large company so spending time figuring out things is justified as a busienss expense. A small company might have to take the tech that current employees know and act.

As for Java. I know it VERY well. I can not comprehend not using it for all the things that you mentioned.

If it hurts your head using it, you are not trying hard enough on your own to learn it. Eclipse and Java are a hell of a combo. If you are trying to use "GUI builders" with Java you have already lost. Learn Swing. Once learned, it is laughable to use. All you need to do is create a layout graphically and manipulate the models under the hood. If you know model/view/controller you should be able to blow through a Java client very quickly.

 

[beginner99]

Why not just create a web application which can also be done from Visual Studio? That will work on any device with a browser.

Not that I'm against Java, in fact I prefer Java + Netbeans because it's free and cross-platform. So same thing can more or less now be said about .Net.

But if you already know VS and .Net, make a web app. And if you can't great a GUI without an Wizard, learn it. Wizard-GUIs are usually horrible to change. I get css/html (1 JavaScript) can be a pain, but it's for sure the GUI framework of the future and here to stay

 

[purbeast0]

i've been doing webapp development with intellij for about 4 years now and love it. i do both front end and backend. i was using visual studio for like 5+ years before this and i like intellij better than i remember ever liking visual studio.

if you're just doing front end, you don't even really need an IDE. you can just use something like sublime text which will be super fast since there is nothing going on in the background really, other than using some plugins to help with ide functionality (like git, code completion, etc), but it gives you all the syntax highlighting and stuff too.

getting off of visual studio also sounds like a good learning opportunity to you since that seems to be all you've used before.

i've used netbeans extensively too, and intellij is much better than netbeans. and both of them are about a billion times + infinity times better than eclipse.

 

[brianmanahan]

If you are trying to use "GUI builders" with Java you have already lost. Learn Swing. Once learned, it is laughable to use.

meh, i still find it easier to draw Swing GUIs in netbeans

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

meh, i still find it easier to draw Swing GUIs in netbeans

I draw what i want on a sheet of paper then figure out what containers/layout managers are needed. . I avoid all the code bloat of gui builders doing this.

And in the end i have cleaner, more maintainable code.

 

[purbeast0]

if you guys are building swing guis, you should probably come over to the 21st century.

 

[Cogman]

if you guys are building swing guis, you should probably come over to the 21st century.

Not a lot of great alternatives out there in Java land. JavaFX is nice but incomplete. For example, it supports css but it doesn't support all of css for things like "width". SWT requires that you bundle things like GTK in with your jvm, that is pretty not great for platform independence. And that is about it.

Honestly, my recommendation if you are doing a gui application is to do it in CSS/HTML/JS. The only exception is a game or a 3d app. But for general gui crud, the HTML/JS stack is really hard to beat.

 

[RampantAndroid]

When I'm not inside of VS/using the VS toolchain, I'm just using a text editor like Sublime Text 3 - not really bothering with full IDEs. I found netbeans to be painfully bad, to be honest. It was easier to just forget about intellisense all together.

 

[Cogman]

When I'm not inside of VS/using the VS toolchain, I'm just using a text editor like Sublime Text 3 - not really bothering with full IDEs. I found netbeans to be painfully bad, to be honest. It was easier to just forget about intellisense all together.

What language are you dealing with? AFAIK, netbeans really only works well with Java. Other than that, it kind of sucks.

 

[purbeast0]

Not a lot of great alternatives out there in Java land. JavaFX is nice but incomplete. For example, it supports css but it doesn't support all of css for things like "width". SWT requires that you bundle things like GTK in with your jvm, that is pretty not great for platform independence. And that is about it.

Honestly, my recommendation if you are doing a gui application is to do it in CSS/HTML/JS. The only exception is a game or a 3d app. But for general gui crud, the HTML/JS stack is really hard to beat.

well if you're making a java desktop application now a days, you're doing it wrong

i agree with your 2nd paragraph, which is what i would use as well for the front end.

 

[RampantAndroid]

I was trying to make it agree with PHP & a GIT setup...which was hell (I deploy webcode using the GIT hooks.)

Regarding Java...the only real advantage is that the ARM spec these days has some instructions there to directly benefit Java from what I remember. Otherwise...well, I avoid it. I'd rather be playing in the land of C or C#.

 

[brianmanahan]

if you guys are building swing guis, you should probably come over to the 21st century.

yeah, if i had to do swing UIs for anything more than a little throwaway util once every few years, i would quit

 

[brianmanahan]

Regarding Java...the only real advantage is that the ARM spec these days has some instructions there to directly benefit Java from what I remember. Otherwise...well, I avoid it. I'd rather be playing in the land of C or C#.

java itself isn't anything great, it's groovy and scala and clojure that make the JVM good to use

(though i still do a lot of java EE for work)