Newbie question - Development environment (IDE)

[Martin Wildam]

Hi folks,

I am new to java. I am thinking of switching to java because of
multiplatform support and I am currently on Windows with VB. I also did some
Javascripting within some ASP pages and I have rusty memories about Pascal
and C++ from my MS DOS times. But in the last years I focused on VB. So far
the introduction.

I am a little confused about what is the difference between Java and J2EE,
JSP, JavaBeans, JavaApplets, Servelets and some other keywords that you face
when looking around about Java. However, I would need Java for Client
applications, server side services for scripting and web applications. As I
am not satisfied with the evolution of the .NET (apart that it keeps me
dependent on Microsoft Windows platform) I guess I am better with Java,
correct?

I have seen some development environments (IDE) yet (like NetBeans and
Eclipse), but talking with other guys I always hear new names so I decided
to ask here at the newsgroup what would be the best thing to use. I am sure
that it depends even on personal preferences but I would really be glad to
hear/read your opinions. It would be a good orientation for me. So please
tell me, what you prefer and why?

Thanks a lot in advantage for all who give an idea,

Martin.

--
_______________________________________
Martin Wildam

mailto:[email protected]
http://www.may.co.at

 

[John C. Bollinger]

Hi folks,

[Group: Hi Martin!]

[...]

I am a little confused about what is the difference between Java and J2EE,
JSP, JavaBeans, JavaApplets, Servelets and some other keywords that you face
when looking around about Java.

Except for Java itself, all those are names of Java-based technologies
designed for developing software in specific application domains.

However, I would need Java for Client
applications, server side services for scripting and web applications.

Of the above-mentioned technologies, for server-side scripting and
related kinds of work you would probably be looking at JSP and/or
servlets, with the former being a friendly face on top of the latter
that provides a programming paradigm more like some other server-side
scripting technologies such as PHP or ASP.

For client-side applications you'll likely want straight Java, and
perhaps applets if you are writing web applications.

Don't worry too much about JavaBeans -- you'll probably end up using
them without realizing it, and the details aren't too hard to pick up.

As I
am not satisfied with the evolution of the .NET (apart that it keeps me
dependent on Microsoft Windows platform) I guess I am better with Java,
correct?

Java is the most prevalent general-purpose alternative to .NET. Java
can help minimize portability problems.

I have seen some development environments (IDE) yet (like NetBeans and
Eclipse), but talking with other guys I always hear new names so I decided
to ask here at the newsgroup what would be the best thing to use. I am sure
that it depends even on personal preferences but I would really be glad to
hear/read your opinions. It would be a good orientation for me. So please
tell me, what you prefer and why?

While you are first learning Java I recommend that you rely on your
trusty text editor and the command-line compiler. A number of us around
here still use that combination, for that matter. A text editor with
syntax highlighting for Java is useful but not essential. (Many are
available.) An IDE gives you a lot more to learn (the IDE itself) and
can also obscure some of the details of the language by taking care of
them for you.

When I do use an IDE it is Eclipse, in part because of the excellent
refactoring support, in part because of the highly extensible
architecture, and in part because I just like it.


John Bollinger
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Martin Wildam]

I have seen some development environments (IDE) yet (like NetBeans and

While you are first learning Java I recommend that you rely on your
trusty text editor and the command-line compiler. A number of us around
here still use that combination, for that matter. A text editor with
syntax highlighting for Java is useful but not essential. (Many are
available.) An IDE gives you a lot more to learn (the IDE itself) and
can also obscure some of the details of the language by taking care of
them for you.

When I do use an IDE it is Eclipse, in part because of the excellent
refactoring support, in part because of the highly extensible
architecture, and in part because I just like it.

Thank you for your input. I have seen Eclipse already and I also found it
quite ok. I know the text editor work also from doing VBScript, HTML,
JavaScript etc. but an IDE would help me in debugging first because at the
beginning I will do a lot of mistakes and with a Debugger I will figure out
my errors more quickly.

 

[Chris Riesbeck]

Martin Wildam wrote:



While you are first learning Java I recommend that you rely on your
trusty text editor and the command-line compiler...
An IDE gives you a lot more to learn (the IDE itself) and
can also obscure some of the details of the language by taking care of
them for you.

My feeling as well though DrJava (http://drjava.sourceforge.net/) has a
lot of nice features for beginners, including a "test out some
Java code" console window and integrated JUnit support, and set
up went quite smoothly for me.

When I do use an IDE it is Eclipse, in part because of the excellent
refactoring support, in part because of the highly extensible
architecture, and in part because I just like it.

DrJava has a prototype Eclipse plugin to ease the transition
but I've not tried it.

 

[shay]

Since you are coming from a VB background I would suggest that you
take a look at Oracle JDeveloper as an IDE since it will give you
visual development (and not just a code editor) for both Applets and
Applications using Swing and JSP HTML applications.

You get a visual editor where you can drag and drop visual components
and easily bind them to the database.

Check it out at http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev where you can see
some demos and download the full version.

 

[Jonathan]

Hi,

I personaly suggest you to use Java. I really like it, I just came here
because I'm converting my site to Java and I have a question, but I used it
at my job and it's very powerful. If you want to understand all the terms
and know a lot about Java, I really suggest you to take the time to pass
through the J2EE tutorial . J2EE is for Java 2 Enterprise Edition, it
includes JSP, Servlets, Enteprise bean, xml files, database connections, ...
a lot of exercices and descriptions. All that is totally free on the
www.java.sun.com .

Have a nice day,

Jonathan