As developers, the tools we use are crucial to our daily work. We want to use the best tools so that we have the best outcomes. But which Java IDEs are worth your time and effort? Java is a multi-billion dollar industry. It’s not too difficult to believe that there are many tools for developers to choose from.
Here are the best java software.
Eclipse
Eclipse is one of the most popular Java IDEs on the market. It’s free, open-source, and has an extensive plugin ecosystem that allows users to customize functionalities for application development.
The Eclipse IDE comes in both desktop and cloud editions, with the cloud edition allowing developers to code in a web browser.
Eclipse is a top choice because of its development tools. Eclipse offers the Eclipse Marketplace that contains a variety of plugins available for download, along with a Plugin Development Environment that allows developers to create their own features.
Eclipse supports over 100 programming languages, including JavaScript, Groovy, and Scala, and it has a robust set of modeling, charting, and testing tools.
Pros:
- Runtime core
- Custom compiler
- Easy Git and Apache Maven integration
- Marketplace for installing plugins
- Editing, debugging, browsing, and refactoring features
- Code completion
Cons:
- Reputation for running slowly
- Uses a lot of CPU
- A heavy tool with frequent crashes
- Complicated plugin environment
Use case: You’re a multi-language developer looking for an IDE that offers an extensive plugin environment and don’t mind taking the time to customize your experience.
Cross-platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, Solaris
Price: Free
NetBeans
Apache NetBeans is the official IDE for Java 8, making it a top Java IDE for creating desktop, mobile, and web applications. NetBeans is open-source and is used to develop desktop, web, and mobile applications along with HTML5 and C++.
With NetBeans, it’s easy to customize software applications because it highlights Java code syntactically and semantically.
With powerful refactoring and debugging tools, NetBeans helps increase accuracy and efficiency. Developers mainly use NetBeans for Java, but it has extensions that allow you to work in other programming languages, such as C, C++, and JavaScript.
Pros:
- Simple plugin environment
- Available in 28 languages
- Premade templates for script writing
- Side-by-side code comparison
- Source code analysis to help enhance code
- Project management tools
- Extends to mobile use
- Maven support
Cons:
- The debugger can be slow
- Consumes a lot of memory
Use case: You’re a multi-language developer looking for a ready-to-go IDE with developer collaboration tools and Maven support.
Cross-platform: Linux, Mac OS, Windows, Solaris
Price: Free
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition
IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition is a free Java IDE (Integrated Development Environment). It is mainly used for Android app development, Scala, Groovy, Java SE and Java programming. It is lightweight in design and comes with useful features like JUnit testing, TestNG, debugging, code inspections, code completion, and support for multiple refactoring. Plus Maven build tools, ant, visual GUI builder and code editor for XML and Java.
There are some features missing from the Community Edition. If you require more you can buy a license to unlock all the features.
IntelliJ Idea Community Edition is is released under the Apache 2 License.
Android Studio
Android Studio from Google is mainly designed for developing on the Android Platform. However it is capable of running and editing some Java code.
Originally it was built on the IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition created by JetBrains. It features a Flexible Gradle-based build system, build variants and multiple APK generation. It has expanded template support for Google Services and various device types and a rich layout editor with support for theme editing. It also has Lint tools to catch performance, usability, version compatibility, and other problems.
Android Studio also comes with ProGuard and app-signing capabilities. It also features built-in support for Google Cloud Platform. Projects can be configured to use specific Java Development Kits.
Android Studio is freely available under the Apache License 2.0. It is available for download on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. It replaced Eclipse as Google’s primary IDE for native Android application development.
Enide Studio 2014
Enide Studio 2014 (version 0.11-preview) was initially released as a stand-alone product for all operating systems. However later changes saw it develop a Tool Suite for Node.js, JavaScript and Java Development. This is available from the Eclipse plugin store and from the main website.
Enide Studio 2014 Plugin includes:
– Nodeclipse 0.17, – Chrome Development Tools, AngularJS for Eclipse, TernIDE, Eclipse WTP WebResources, TCF Terminals, MarkDown (*.md) Editor, – GitHub Flavored Markdown (GFM) Viewer, various themes, Nodeclipse EditBox, RestClient Tool. StartExplorer, Git Add-on, Maven, Gradle integration, Minimalist Jade Editor and more…
BlueJ
BlueJ is an integrated development environment (IDE) for the Java programming language. It has been mainly developed for educational purposes. However, it is also suitable for those who wish to do small-scale software development. It runs with the help of a JDK (Java Development Kit).
BlueJ is mainly developed for the teaching of object-oriented programming. Its design differs from other development environments as a result.
The main screen graphically shows the class structure of an application under development. Objects can be interactively created and tested. This interaction facility, combined with a clean, simple user interface, allows easy experimentation with objects under development. This allows beginners to get started more quickly, and without being overwhelmed.
Newbie users can check values and call methods on objects. They can also pass them as parameters and Java expressions can be invoked without compiling. This means BlueJ is a powerful graphical shell/REPL for Java.
The BlueJ project is free and open source software. It is licensed under GNU GPL with the classpath exception. There are popular textbooks designed for teaching introductory university/college courses with BlueJ. There is also a site full of teaching resources. It can run on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other platforms which run Java. It can also run without installation from a USB stick.
jEdit
jEdit is a text editor with hundreds (counting the time developing plugins) of person-years of development behind it. Most people argue that jEdit beats many expensive development tools for features and ease of use. In particular the jEdit core comes with a built-in macro language. This is an extensible plugin architecture. Hundreds of macros and plugins are available.
There is also an auto indent function, and syntax highlighting for more than 200 languages. It has support for a large number of character encodings including UTF8 and Unicode. Plus folding for selectively hiding regions of text, word wrap, and more.
It can also be used for source code editing, search and replacing and file management. jEdit is written in Java, so it runs on Mac OS X, OS/2, Unix, VMS and Windows. It is released as free software with full source code, provided under the terms of the GPL 2.0.
Java Applications
Mobile Applications
Let’s begin by pointing out that the Android OS is closely based on Java, and that Android phones consistently garner a market share of over 85%. Add to this the fact that most mobile app developers call Java their official programming language. Java is compatible with app designing software such as Kotlin and Android Studio. Java Platform, Micro Edition (alternately called Java ME or J2ME) functions as a cross-platform framework for creating applications that work across all Java-support devices. Now take all of that and remember that mobile computing is outpacing desktop computing today, and you can see how you can’t escape Java.
Desktop GUI Applications
GUI stands for Graphic User Interface, and Java enables GUI development through resources like Abstract Windowing Toolkit (AWT), JavaFX, and Swing. AWT features several pre-made components such as button, list, menu, and several third-party components. JavaFX is composed of a set of graphics and media packages, providing Swing interoperability and 3D graphics features. Swing is a GUI widget that offers advanced elements such as lists, scroll panes, tables, tabbed panels, and trees.
Even though mobile computing dominates the market today, there is still demand out there for desktop applications, and with these tools, programmers can develop any desktop application.
Java Web-based Applications
Java provides high security and simple coding, two elements that attract web application developers. Servlets, Struts, and JSPs give effective support to web applications and offer the potential to develop whatever kind of programs needed. Additionally, open-source e-commerce platforms like Broadleaf makes designing e-commerce apps a simple task.
Java Web Servers and Application Servers
The robust Java ecosystem has given rise to numerous Java web and application servers. Web server space is home to servlets like Apache Tomcat, Project Jigsaw, and Rimfaxe Web Server (RWS). Meanwhile, servlets like WebLogic, WebSphere, and JBoss EAP have a firm foothold in the commercial application server space.
Java Enterprise Applications
Java Enterprise Edition (Java EE) is a popular platform that offers API and runtime environments for scripting tasks, including web services and network applications, to name a couple. According to Oracle, Java runs on 97% of enterprise-owned computers. Java is also recognized as being the foundation for many banking applications that use Java in their entire process, from front-end users to back-end servers. Lastly, Java’s capacity for sustaining high performance makes it a smart choice for high-frequency trading systems like Murex.
Java Scientific Applications
Science-related mathematical operations and calculations require developing apps that are extremely fast, highly secure, easily maintained, and highly portable. Java fills this need nicely. Powerful scientific applications like MATLAB rely on Java as part of the core system and interacting user interfaces.
Conclusion
Java is a popular programming language and it’s used worldwide. Programming languages are used for creating computers with the ability to think. And for this, programmers use programming languages or “tools” such as Lisp,Python,Ruby etc to create programs that they want. These tools help programmers organize and manipulate the data and information.