Tools


If there's one topic most likely to get developers all frothy at the mouth it's a discussion about tools (no, not the DIY kind - I mean software development tools; IDEs and the like). Development tools are a very personal thing for coders, very much like the choice of tools for a carpenter or plumber.

I have very distinct requirements for the tools I use, which I know not every coder will share. This is why I'm getting so worked up at the moment having just moved to Java development from a long (~two years) stint of doing C# work. The majority of my C# work has been undertaken in Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and now that I'm not using it, boy do I miss it. I know that a lot of coders dislike the Microsoft development tools, but I've come to feel at home using them (after turning off all the annoying, intrusive gimmicks) and now anything else feels poorly thought-out and, in many cases, a poor imitation of the Microsoft IDE.

Now I've moved over to Java for my current project I'm still reeling from the poor quality of the tools available. Actually, that last comment is a bit inflammatory - the tools aren't poor quality (certainly that's not the case with both Eclipse and NetBeans, both of which I've evaluated recently) it's just that they don't cater to my exacting requirements, which, after all, have been refined over the years using Microsoft tools.

Quick sideline: I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, I just feel that they've put a lot of thought into their development tools (which are easily the best products they put out there). Mind you, since Mono was released I've been using that under OS X more and more...

Anyway, the long and short of it is that I've been seriously unimpressed with the Java IDEs, partially because the way they work is a bit alien to me (I cannot for the life of me get my head around projects in NetBeans and I've all but given up trying to get the refactoring plug-ins for Eclipse to stay plugged in). My other big gripe is that most of the IDEs are written in Java and, frankly, they're not the good advertisements for desktop Java applications that they should be (a notable exception here is Eclipse, which really shows off the SWT to good effect). I had a play with using Visual Studio to do my coding in but, although it supports Java syntax highlighting it doesn't build and I couldn't get Ant working with it (it's probably very easy but I just haven't had time). So now I've switched all of my Java coding onto the Mac., using Xcode. The reasons for this are quite simple: I've reasonably familiar with Xcode having used it for Objective-C/Cocoa projects, it supports Java editing and building and, best of all, it isn't a Java application so it's nice and responsive...

Posted: Wed - September 8, 2004 at 12:38 PM        

©