Hello all! Wow I just discovered this website, and....WOW lol. I just started programming this semester at the University of Texas at Austin. This is probably going to be a really stupid question to everyone here who seems to be quite advanced in their programming knowledge, but here's my question:

My first book, Programming and Problem Solving with Java, gave me a CD with Eclipse IDE. I just noticed it now, a few weeks into the semester, and prior I had just been typing my code with notepad and managing my JDK through CMD (I have my runtime enviornment installed on a flash drive). I'm just wondering which I should be using, if there is any difference at all.

To give you an idea how "beginner" I really am, I just learned what the Scanner class was lol. I couldn't find anything on this website or the web answering this question.

Thanks guys! I look forward to becoming a programmer! (video games my username is my Gamertag on Xbox live)

an IDE will make the process easier, most include debuggers and syntax highlighting to make your life much less cluttered as well.

I would recommend learning Eclipse, but knowing how to compile via command line is a good thing to know.

First of all, welcome to DIC !

Now don't worry about being a beginner we all started from somewhere, I remeber being a beginner a long time ago, the good old days lol.

Anyway yeah you should be using eclipse, the auto complete function and the error checking will teach you alot, without getting too much of a head ache. What I like about the auto complete is that i can explorer the different classes that java offers and the different functions, and sometimes my own functions that i wrote a while ago and i no longer remeber their names.

Good luck!

Two of Eclipses greatest Java features IMO are it's auto completion, and it's close integration to the Javadocs program.

For example, if you have a String object (String s = "Hello world!";), and you want to call one of the String class's methods, but you don't know it's name, you can activate auto completion by pressing "CTRL + Space" (you would type s. first).

A list of methods will pop up, with brief little descriptions.

Another thing I really like about Eclipse is the fact that it automatically (usually, if not, the hot key is SHIFT + CTRL + O) selects the proper imports. If I want to use an action listener, and I add the line implements ActionListener Eclipse automatically adds the proper import for that.

Umm, in an IDE you get syntax highlighting, which is a huge plus. Eclipse also has auto formating (if you turn it on) that will allow you to type messy but keep your code clean.

There's also refactoring, which allows you to move a class to a different package and have all instances of that class updated automatically.

The only thing I don't like about Eclipse is how big it is. It takes ages to load up off my jump drive, so I just use it at home. If you're running everything off a jump drive, I'd say leave Eclipse home and stick with what you've been doing up until now. But for god's sake, please get something better than notepad.

thanks everybody for those quick responses! I don't think I'm far enough to know everything that an IDE does, but I will start becoming accustom to it. And Tom, I will definitely download that Notepad++. Sorry lol I didn't know there was an advanced notepad.

Right now I'm just working on the Mortgage calculator. I've done the HelloWorld, PrintName, and FreezeBoil and a few others I've just done for fun to explore Java on my own. The only problem with the Mortgage I'm having is that the forums on here use import javax.swing* and we haven't even learned that yet lol. So I'm going to play around with that more and more and see what I'm doing wrong!

Thanks again guys! Can't wait till I understand what ya'll are talking about!!

hey, what class are you in.

I'm a junior at UT just went through 2 semesters of Java with Mary Eberlein.

if your not a CS major then I'm guessing you have her.

I have all my old projects

if you are a CS major i may or may not know your prof.

Yea I'm a Computer Science major. My professor is Ben Blake, and the class number 260. I don't know if that helps but I have no idea who Mary Eberlein is lol. Blake did say the first day that this was the first semester they were using my book.

For java, I like JCreator (written in C++ )

--KYA

Though never used, there is JDeveloper also which is used in corporations.

But for a beginner, stick to Notepad/editplus/textpad etc.

HERETIC!

So you either pay for your IDE or you're missing key functionality (like debugger).

This post has been edited by Programmist: 4 Feb, 2008 - 03:12 PM

at UT we all used blueJ for the first 2 semesters. now its eclipse.