A Java web developer takes a look at the Java IDE landscape and examines the major offerings. IntelliJ IDEA comes out on top, hands down, according to his measurements, and he includes a detailed review.If you Google for "best Java web IDE hands down" you will end up with tens of thousands of results that include praises for every integrated development environment (IDE) out there. Everyone seems to have his or her favorite, whether it's a simple text editor or a memory-hogging, state-of-the-art, does-all-my-coding-for-me IDE.
This review's objective is to present you with concrete information on how you can increase developer efficiency and improve code quality when developing web applications by using the appropriate IDE. Which one will it be?
What is an IDE? A Quick Overview
An IDE is an application comprised of tools that benefits software development. Most IDEs are comprised of tools that:
- Allow you to edit your source code
- Automate repetitive tasks
- Compile code
- Highlight code syntax in Java Class files
- Provide code-completion as you type
- Browse Class structures
- Reformat code
- View JavaDocs
More sophisticated IDEs have enhanced tools that:
- Check code for errors as you type
- Highlight code syntax in JSP, XML and J2EE files
- Automatically create Classes, Methods, and Properties
- Integrate with source code repositories, like CVS
- Integrate with web application servers, like Apache Tomcat
- Integrate with build utilities, like Apache Ant
- Refactor code
- Visually debug code
Some IDEs also have plug-ins that allow third-party developers to extend the capability of the IDE.
Introduction to the Various Products
There are five applications that come to mind when answering that question "What editor do you use for coding?" While some of these products are well established, others are gaining momentum.
To be fair, here's a brief snippet from each of their web sites:
Eclipse – "Eclipse is a kind of universal tool platform – an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in particular..."
IntelliJ IDEA – "IntelliJ IDEA is an intelligent JAVA IDE intensely focused on developer productivity."
JBuilder – "Accelerate your Java development with Borland JBuilder the leading cross-platform environment for building industrial-strength enterprise Java applications."
JEdit – "JEdit is a mature and well-designed programmer's text editor."
NetBeans – "Develop cross-platform desktop, mobile and web applications based on industry standards utilizing the latest technologies with our full-featured integrated development environment for Java Software Developers."
Feature Matrix
Despite what the web sites tell you, if you take a look at the web developer IDE features in a matrix, you will see that there is a big difference between them.
| Feature | Eclipse 3.0 |
IntelliJ IDEA 4.5 |
JBuilder 2005 |
JEdit 4.2 |
NetBeans 4.0 |
| JSP Syntax Coloring | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| JSP Code Completion | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| JSP Real-time Code Warnings | Yes | ||||
| JSP Precompilation Errors | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tomcat Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tag Library Editor | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ant Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Download Size (approx) | 23 Mb | 33 Mb | 453 Mb | 2 Mb | 76 Mb |
