Using IDE

[nilesh prasad]

Hi All,
I have just started on the assignment. The instructions says that I may use an IDE for development. Some IDE's generate quite a bit of code for you e.g. the menu system. Is that acceptable or will it be marked down?
Does anyone have any other reasons for not using IDE.
Looking forward to all the Gurus' help in the comming months.
regards,
npnz.

[Geir Morten Hagen]

You can use any IDE you want, but I would not use any "code-generators". Remember that you need to defend your choices, and the code that IDEs generate is often cryptic and messy. Write it yourself
I personally recommend using the opensource IDE Eclipse. It's clean, simple and powerful. www.eclipse.org
[ April 30, 2002: Message edited by: Geir Morten Hagen ]

[Sai Prasad]

I am using JCreator shareware version. I love it.
http://www.jcreator.com

[dean tomlinson]

i'm using visual age for java 3.5. it's the only IDE i've used so I don't really know any better.
I like it becasue you see a summary of class members, which allows you to keep a higher level perspective on what you're doing; and when you are coding a method you can isolate that in a window.
a bad point with VAJ is that it can screw up your code. the best thing to do there is work in the source view where possible.
using an IDE will probably tie you into a specific JDK. VAJ ties you into IBM's JDK which is not going to satify Sun's requirements for the assignment. Once I've got everything fairly complete I'm plannning to complete the work in ultraedit and get everything schweete!

[Mag Hoehme]

I'm quite happy with the personal edition of JBuilder, which can be downloaded for free at
www.borland.com.

[Mark Spritzler]

"npnz"-
Welcome to the JavaRanch! Please adjust your displayed name to meet the JavaRanch Naming Policy. You can change it here.
Thanks! and welcome to the JavaRanch!
As far as IDEs go. They do put a lot of extraneous code in there that are usually proprietary to the IDE. I would remove any of their code, as I assume you will be marked down.
That is why they put this is

You may develop using an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) but your final product may not have any residual dependency upon that.

residual is that code they put in that you wouldn't normally have put in yourself if you coded it in a Text Editor.
Mark
[ April 30, 2002: Message edited by: Mark Spritzler ]
[ April 30, 2002: Message edited by: Mark Spritzler ]

[Geir Morten Hagen]

Originally posted by dean tomlinson:
using an IDE will probably tie you into a specific JDK. VAJ ties you into IBM's JDK which is not going to satify Sun's requirements for the assignment. Once I've got everything fairly complete I'm plannning to complete the work in ultraedit and get everything schweete!

That's the nice thing about Eclipse. You can use whatever jdk you want

[nilesh prasad]

Hi,
Thank you all for your response.
Nilesh Prasad