Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Compiling, Running, and Testing with an IDE
Problem
It is cumbersome to use several tools for the various development tasks.
Solution
Use an integrated development environment (IDE), which combines editing, testing, compil-
ing, running, debugging, and package management.
Discussion
Many programmers find that using a handful of separate tools—a text editor, a compiler, and
a runner program, not to mention a debugger (see
Debugging with JDB
)—is too many. An
IDE
integrates
all of these into a single toolset with a graphical user interface. Many IDEs
are available, ranging all the way up to fully integrated tools with their own compilers and
virtual machines. Class browsers and other features of IDEs round out the ease-of-use feature
sets of these tools. It has been argued many times whether an IDE really makes you more
productive or if you just have more fun doing the same thing. However, today most deve-
lopers use an IDE because of the productivity gains. Although I started as a command-line
junkie, I do find that the following IDE benefits make me more productive:
Code completion
Ian's Rule
here is that I never type more than three characters of any name that is known
to the IDE; let the computer do the typing!
“Incremental compiling” features
Note and report compilation errors as you type, instead of waiting until you are finished
typing.
Refactoring
The ability to make far-reaching yet behavior-preserving changes to a code base without
having to manually edit dozens of individual files.
Beyond that, I don't plan to debate the IDE versus the command-line process; I use both
modes at different times and on different projects. I'm just going to show a few examples of
using a couple of the Java-based IDEs.
