Good Java IDE with code complete?

[rollcast]

I've been learning C# but just want to give Java a go before I start learning the difficult bits of C# to see which I prefer, most people say the 2 languages are very similar but I just wanted to see for myself.

I really like having a code complete function in the IDE but I tried Netbeans but wasn't keen on the fact you had to open the code complete window manually each time you used it.

Does anyone know of a freeware IDE that is a bit like Visual Studio 2010, I'm not really that reliant on the visual form making I just like its style of code complete and its debugging.

Thanks
AL

 

[jedishrfu]

I prefer NetBeans but you can try eclipse but I think both do code complete directly not via opening some window.

I'm thinking of the xxx. and you get a list of methods that can be applied to xxx complete with some arguments already filled in but changeable.

 

[Coin]

Eclipse is nice and the nice thing about Eclipse is it also can be used with most other languages besides Java (though I'm not sure if it does C#).

This said, C# and Java are similar in a lot of ways, and although it's good to know both I would suggest basing your choice of which to focus on not on which you find more pleasant to use but rather based on carefully examining which is more usable for whatever it is you want to do. Both C# and Java have heavy deployment complications and each can only be used in certain constricted situations. Because choosing C# or Java means limiting yourself to certain phones / certain OSes / certain libraries, which environments you'll eventually need to run in will in practice probably determine which you wind up using.

 

[jedishrfu]

One of my beefs with Eclipse was the search for plugins as you tried to extend it. For awhile a new plugin would be free and then the developer would end work on it and replace it with a paid version. When it first came out I used Eclipse for everything but switched when I started a new job and discovered my teammates were using NetBeans.

On NetBeans, most of the plugins are already there or easily and freely available. I mostly do Java, Groovy, Scala and some C coding on NetBeans using SVN and maven development tools.

The one caveat of NetBeans with the Oracle acquisition of Sun you never know if the support will disappear but I think the community of developers is big enough that it won't for some.

Wrt to Java and C#: MS made C# following their strategy replicate and conquer. When Java first came out MS introduced it on Windows but changed one of the libs I think the RMI stuff to MS specific code and that meant you could no longer develop your app cross-platform as Sun intended and Sun balked citing it as a licensing issue so then a short time later MS introduced J# and then C# appeared. It made it difficult to run Java applets of MS Windows IE. Anyway applets went the way of the dodo and servler based technology took off ie servlets, jsps and java script on the browser but that's another story.

It was the same strategy they used in PC-DOS days when the Lattice C compiler reigned supreme and MS rebranded it as MS C for a bit and switch to their own compiler technology and cutoff Lattice C at the pass.
"""
James Gosling, who created the Java programming language in 1994, and Bill Joy, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems, the originator of Java, called C# an "imitation" of Java; Gosling further claimed that "[C# is] sort of Java with reliability, productivity and security deleted."
"""
-- quoted from the wikipedia article on C# at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_Sharp_(programming_language)

 

[thumper2]

Java is a great language and has a very large user base but c#, in my opinion, is a better language when looking at language features. Java was very late in the game on implementing generics and java performance has always been poor compared to c#. Most developers who have experience with both find c# to be a "better java" and just a more productive language overall. That being said, if your platform is anything other than windows, java is the clear winner.

 

[toddbeck911]

If you are learning Java before C# then its certainly going to help you a lot in C#... Esp. the OOps concept in Java will help you.. Go through a complete reference course in JAVA before starting C#..
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