Java: My Favorite Free Tools For Java Development

[Jonathan Aquino]

IDE: Eclipse. IBM's poured $40 million (so far) into this IDE, and
made it free. Rename/move methods/classes/packages, even across
projects! Seamlessly work on multiple projects; fast smart
compilation; native GUI; specialized window-layouts ("perspectives");
plug-ins; ...

Text editor: XEmacs. Macros, built-in psychoanalyst, literally 1000
plug-ins, including: view/edit lines matching regexp, text stats, no
mouse needed, highlight regexp, run shell command on selection,
language-indep auto-complete, multiple window-layouts, saves state
between sessions, random sort, ...

Code-coverage testing: JCoverage. Produces some beautiful HTML pages
with red/green bars, linked to your source code in HTML.

Code comprehension: Doxygen (works for Java). Produces beautiful
flowing class/interface-hierarchy diagrams, each linked to your source
code HTMLized.

Code metrics: CCCC (works for Java). Generates a huge HTML report
containing a ton of useful metrics, including: lines of code,
fan-in/fan-out (cool!), depth of inheritance tree...

Finding unused methods: Proguard. An obfuscator, but has an option to
find dead code.

Chart library: JFreeChart. A library (jar file) rather than a
development tool, but hey, it gives your app slick-looking graphs!
Comes with easy-to-understand examples.

Jon

 

[BillR]

IDE: Eclipse. IBM's poured $40 million (so far) into this IDE, and
made it free. Rename/move methods/classes/packages, even across
projects! Seamlessly work on multiple projects; fast smart
compilation; native GUI; specialized window-layouts ("perspectives");
plug-ins; ...

Text editor: XEmacs. Macros, built-in psychoanalyst, literally 1000
plug-ins, including: view/edit lines matching regexp, text stats, no
mouse needed, highlight regexp, run shell command on selection,
language-indep auto-complete, multiple window-layouts, saves state
between sessions, random sort, ...

Code-coverage testing: JCoverage. Produces some beautiful HTML pages
with red/green bars, linked to your source code in HTML.

Code comprehension: Doxygen (works for Java). Produces beautiful
flowing class/interface-hierarchy diagrams, each linked to your source
code HTMLized.

Code metrics: CCCC (works for Java). Generates a huge HTML report
containing a ton of useful metrics, including: lines of code,
fan-in/fan-out (cool!), depth of inheritance tree...

Finding unused methods: Proguard. An obfuscator, but has an option to
find dead code.

Chart library: JFreeChart. A library (jar file) rather than a
development tool, but hey, it gives your app slick-looking graphs!
Comes with easy-to-understand examples.

Jon

Nice post, Jon. Certainly a good reference for those willing to
search the ng archives in the future. Looks like it might have the
makings of a new Pricelessware subcategory if we have enough
developers.

Or perhaps ACF could recruit the opinions from the appropriate ng(s).
Or offer to host a page for reporting the results of an appropriate
poll? Or a link? (This should make for some interesting reading
between those who view the site as solely the PL -- "just" an ACF poll
-- versus the site as a the basis for a broader effort to recognize
and promote quality freeware highlighted by the PL.)

BillR

 

[chris esposito]

Code beautifier: Jalopy. Does a decent job. Plug-ins for JBuilder,
Eclipse, maybe others.

Also a plugin for Netbeans.

 

[Wald]

Also a plugin for Netbeans.

Too bad it is leaving the open source strategy. I found this
message from the author on the Jalopy forum on SourceForge:

--------------------------------
Howdy,

quite a few people keep asking me what my plans are for the next
release and when it will finally make its way. And everyone
suggests that the development focus should be on quality not on
new features.

So I finally decided to discontinue open source development and
enhance Jalopy to a full-fledged, commercial quality product. This
is so because a huge amount of work has to be done in areas that
ain't no fun (to me).

I plan to provide different license options (single-user,
multi-user, community, site) and make source code available as
part of the site license so companies may be able to tune the code
for their needs. The free community license supports open source
projects.

The estimated price for a single-user license is 40$. Multi-user
licenses give discounts related to the number of purchased
licences. I'm not yet sure about the site license.


New features/improvements include:
- Line breaks can be kept
- Blank lines can be kept everywhere
- Completely rewritten Javadoc system that runs under JDK 1.4,
brings full XDoclet support, supports arbitrary (X)HTML tags,
can keep line breaks and is much more configurable - Improved line
wrapping - Improved comment support using blank lines heuristics
- White space handling more configurable
- Sorting of class elements now configurable
- Braces handling more configurable
- XML/HTML reporting facility
- SQLJ support
- IDEA 3.0 Plug-in
- Enhanced GUI
- Graphical installer


Best regards,