Java Gurus - Best Java IDE?

[777php]

What IDE's are all you guys using?

I want the most robust and full functioned IDE as possible.

Also are there any good free ones, like Eclipse and Sun Java Studio Creator? Pros/Cons?

 

[MrChad]

I'm a JSP newbie, but a buddy of mine who's more experienced with JSP/J2EE uses IBM WebSphere Application Developer (based on Eclipse, but with some more robust enterprise development features).

 

[Argo]

Eclipse (free), or even better WSAD (websphere server application developer). It's based on eclipse but has built in websphere server so that you can test your applications right away.

 

[notfred]

Eclipse is by far my favorite.

 

[777php]

Any of you guys tried Borland J Builder? Is that any good?

As for eclipse, which variant is your favorite, aren't there six or seven of them?

EDIT: In regards to MyEclipse, is it really necessary to subscribe to them for updates, or can you even download without a subscription?

 

[kamper]

I use eclipse personally. Quite good for being free and all. Debugging ejb based apps is fairly easy. I've heard good things about JBuilder as far as code generation for ejbs (something you seriously need if you have any significant amount of beans).

 

[Bulldog13]

I use netbeans, but only because I am too lazy to learn Eclipse.

 

[777php]

i've just installed eclipse with MyEclipse on top of it, looks good so far.

 

[purpledemon]

What do you need the IDE for and how much are you willing to pay for it?

I use Intellij IDEA for all my java IDE needs. It has some really great features. I'm still using a slightly older version because I dont want some of the bloat that keeps getting added with newer versions. It does cost about $500 though.

There are times when I use just an editor like UltraEdit or JEdit. These give you speed over functionality but still have a lot of useful features.

Eclipse is widely used, acticely developed and free. I do not use it but everyone that does,seems to love it.

I have used JBuilder before and wasnt impressed. It was feature packed but bloated and slow.

I've used Together Control Center as well. It has some nice modelling tools but it is an incredible resource hog and becomes too slow for coding. It is a good all in one solution if you have the machine to run it.

 

[rh71]

WSAD

 

[AFB]

Personaly, I use JCreator because of it;s speed. I don't need all the advanced features of Eclipse , but that seems to be a favorite.

 

[777php]

I've decided to go totally free with my JSP development, so I'm not going to us MyEclipse as that costs $30.
What plugins do you guys recommend for someone doing JSP development?

Tomcat for Eclipse is a must...what else?

 

[AmigaMan]

I can't believe you guys who are recommending WSAD. It's a memory hungry and slow POS. I only use it because I convinced my boss to shell out a couple thousand dollars for it and I would feel guilty if I didn't use it. Plus at the time it was the only thing that would allow me to debug my application running in Websphere. I have two machines at work at my disposal, my laptop (P-M1.7Ghz, 1.5GB RAM) and my desktop (P4 2.8Ghz, 2GB RAM) and both get bogged down easily.
That being said, if I had to choose again, I'd look at Idea or even Netbeans. Eclipse won't have full J5SE support for a couple more months. The latest Netbeans has it now although it's still in beta.

 

[Justin216]

We are using BlueJ right now..it's pretty nice, and free..

www.bluej.org

 

[beyonddc]

Vote for Netbeans because it has many powerful plugins and also very popular.

 

[yoda291]

Originally posted by: AmigaMan
I can't believe you guys who are recommending WSAD. It's a memory hungry and slow POS. I only use it because I convinced my boss to shell out a couple thousand dollars for it and I would feel guilty if I didn't use it. Plus at the time it was the only thing that would allow me to debug my application running in Websphere. I have two machines at work at my disposal, my laptop (P-M1.7Ghz, 1.5GB RAM) and my desktop (P4 2.8Ghz, 2GB RAM) and both get bogged down easily.
That being said, if I had to choose again, I'd look at Idea or even Netbeans. Eclipse won't have full J5SE support for a couple more months. The latest Netbeans has it now although it's still in beta.

there's a plugin that gives eclipse partial j5 support. I forget the link tho.