Hi guys,

some of my colleagues have suggested using NetBeans when trying to get a hold of Swing components, but I'm not sure if this is the best way to get familiar with it. What is your opinion?

Thanks.

When coding in Windows I use the Crimson Editor.

I suggest trying a few editors & Java IDE's & figuring out which you find is most efficient.

** Moved to Java Programmers **

If you are a beginner you must use a simple editor like TextPad. It doesn't give you the features of an IDE but its very helpful when you are trying to find your way around things in Java.

TextPad comes with very basic feature like compiling and running java class.

NetBeans is a very good IDE for developing swing applications but thats only when you feel that you have got a good understanding of Swing.

Hope its of help.

Isn't that ass backwards? Use Netbeans. If you make a mistake, you will know automatically so you can fix your mistakes. I'd say N++ is for people who know what they're doing a little better and are just whipping up some quick code.

i lost interest in java because we were forced to use notepad

Notepad.

Well, I use a little text editor called SciTE. It supports syntax highlighting. It also supports a rudimentary compile out of the box. The Java compile works well, I still do the C/C++ stuff from the command line.

For larger projects, NetBeans or Eclipse; I swap between them depending on which one is annoying me more.

I've use SciTE for nearly every Java post I've made to this board. It's actually quicker than firing up an IDE behemoth and less picky when I use non language annotation for a post. If you're competent enough to do a large project in a nice friendly hand holding environment, you should be able to put together a one file program in a text editor.

If you're trying to learn an API I would agree that a simple text-editor with syntax highlighting plus the Javadocs and tutorials is the way to go. I used to use Crimson Editor - actually contributed some code to it back in 2001. Been using sciTE for the past 3 or so years and like it a lot. Once you've gotten some practice with it, however, I would jump to Netbeans, which I believe has some of the best free tools for Java GUI work (Swing and JavaFX).

If you're not locked into Swing, you might consider JavaFX. This post has a good description of when one might be more appropriate over the other.

If you are stuck with Swing, then I would also check out SwingX. It's a project over at java.net that provides many commonly-needed components that are sadly missing from the Swing API.

Another fantastic library, if you're building apps with lots of tabular data, is Glazed Lists.

One ore thing you might want to consider is using a Swing XML toolkit like SwiXml or Laszlo. These will allow a declarative style of GUI progaming which is otherwise unavailable in Swing.

For an IDE i would recommend Eclipse, as that is what I have used and have not have any problems with it to date.

As for a text editor I would Recommend Notepad++

Hey guys,
I would suggest you to use Netbeans 6.5 or later for programming when your are developing big project where your required to generates lots of reports & charts etc... Netbeans comes with various plugins that can help to to solve your problems easily. It also saves your valuable time...

But if your are newbie i would suggest you to use simple editors such as notepad, editplus etc . as it will help you to learn the basics from your typos....

NetBeans hands down...I can't imagine why you'd want to use Notepad (save for its low memory footprint). You can't even compile anything with Notepad.

I've heard good things about Eclipse as well.

EDIT: OHH, I thought you meant Notepad as in the crappy text editor. My bad. I haven't heard about Notepad++ so I can't really tell you which is better.

This post has been edited by in5p1r3: 25 May, 2009 - 07:53 AM

Agree with baavgai - for simple bang up classes or a few ( max 4 ) such as posting on these boards i just use gedit in nix and most of the time notepad++ in windows if i am stuck on doze - any bigger projects where you want to do all the other things that come with bigger projects stick to an IDE - either Netbeans / Eclipse seem to be the go on both linux and windows

In regards to choosing between the two, I tend to use neither when developing Swing applications. As I'm lazy and want to get my utilities quickly written for whatever task they are written for I tend to use Eclipse with the Matisse4eclipse plugin which handles the GUI side of my Swing application quite nicely.

I have to admit, I definitely do not miss the days of using notepad to code Java programs. That doesn't mean I don't recommend using notepad if you are new to the Java API, or are trying to teach something to someone who is new to the language or it's concepts.

As far as writing anything beyond 300 lines of code, or are already familiar with Java, why on earth use notepad? Code is far too collaborative these days. Yes, notepad files are basic ascii files which can be comitted into a CVS, but unless you have a good reason, why not let NetBeans track historical changes for you? NetBeans also allows you to design Swing applications with much more ease.

I have used NetBeans since v3 days... each release continues to impress me. It has a large following and do not see any reason for it to slow down. Not to mention, Sun Microsystems touts using it whenever they can... they package their SDK with it!

Lol, notepad? Seriously, what a joke. The least thing you should be able to afford is some rudimentary support for indentation and line count.

This post has been edited by Dantheman: 7 Jun, 2009 - 12:08 PM

Don't be intimidated by the language Java and its IDE's. Use netbeans, get familiar, it will be useful as you grow with the language

I all depends.

If I'm doing small stuff with up to a few classes as prev. stated the definitely notepad++, SciTe depending on my OS...Maybe even VI or VIM depending on the mood.

If I where to go for a nice GUI app or something with many classes and files then I would prob use Netbeans.

... Don't you dare touch the gui creator in NetBeans, I will hunt you down.

And I'll kill you. (he's just gonna hunt you. Then he's gonna give you to me. )

I say, use Emacs (preferably) or Vim. Learning a powerful editor like Emacs or Vim is a good way to keep you from having to learn different environments for every single language you use. I typically use Emacs for everything I do.

And as a side note, you don't have to use Netbeans just to use it's GUI builder. A lot of Clojure guys like me use Netbeans Matisse to whip up a quick GUI if needed for use in Clojure. It's actually pretty convenient.

This post has been edited by Raynes: 27 Oct, 2009 - 09:28 PM

Wow, I can't believe no one uses Eclipse.