Thread: Free Java Development Info

Sun One/Forte JAVA IDE
Sun Developer Tools: now FREE with SDN membership!



Link to good free compilers web site
Free Java Compilers and Assemblers, Free Native Code Java Compilers and Java Development Kits (thefreecountry.com)

Exam Diff - tool to compare 2 files for differences
ExamDiff - The freeware visual file compare tool

Edit Plus - nice wndowsy editor, with syntax hylighting
EditPlus - Text Editor, HTML Editor, PHP Editor and Java Editor for Windows

Nedit - Unix Editor - an editor that can be set up to look just like windows, with all the nice keyboard shortcuts
NEdit - the multi-purpose X Window System editor

Nice site detailing tonnes of information about free compilers for all languages
Free Compilers and Interpreters for Programming Languages (thefreecountry.com)

Editor/compiler/debugger
http://netbeans.org/

I don't think it was listed but I like NetBeans for a editor/compiler/debugger <3

Originally Posted by Synth

I don't think it was listed but I like NetBeans for a editor/compiler/debugger <3

i added it to first post maybe we can make this a sticky or something and people can pm me what they like and ill add it to the list?

Originally Posted by Synth

I don't think it was listed but I like NetBeans for a editor/compiler/debugger <3

Same here, netbeans is the best.

It's worth mentioning that you don't -need- a compiler or an editor if you're just getting into java. I myself code Java in EditPad (think notepad with staggered loading and syntax highlighting) and compile/pack via command prompt (assuming of course you have the Java Development Kit installed, it's quite simple).

To compile .java into .class files:

Code:

"path to javac.exe, i.e. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_18\bin\javac.exe" .java files you wish to compile separated by spaces -classpath Any jar files you wish to include so that their code may be used

To package compiled .class files into a .jar that can be run in-browser

Code:

"path to jar.exe, i.e. C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_18\bin\jar.exe" cvf YourPackage.jar list of .class files separated by spaces

Assuming you have no fatal errors, you'll end up with a "YourPackage.jar" (with this code, anyhow) that you can load into browsers, or by having them run it via command line or a batch file.

I've heard good things about NetBeans, though I've never tried it.

My favorite tutorials are YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

Originally Posted by OcarinaKid

It's worth mentioning that you don't -need- a compiler or an editor if you're just getting into java. I myself code Java in EditPad (think notepad with staggered loading and syntax highlighting) and compile/pack via command prompt (assuming of course you have the Java Development Kit installed, it's quite simple).

Please correct me but javac is the JAVA compiler itself.Isn't it?

Originally Posted by NsideR

Please correct me but javac is the JAVA compiler itself.Isn't it?

I think he meant to say you don't need an IDE, but you are correct.

I used NetBeans for a while. It's pretty good. Sometimes a little slow but it's from Sun and java "native" IDE nothing better you can find. But since Oracle grab all of Sun's good and open source roots I do not believe in the NB's good future, but ... we hope everything is gonna be ok ;)