Preferred Windows Java Development Environment

Question

I've been a Linux Java developer for years and have loved it. I just got a new laptop which is running Windows 7. I could wipe the drive and go back to my typical Linux dev setup: vim for editing, tabbed Bash windows running javac and java for smaller projects, ant for big projects

That said, I'm really thinking it couldn't hurt to learn to develop in a new environment. So, with that in mind, are there any Windows-based Java devs out there? What setup do you like to use to get things done? It'd be interesting to hear both ways to emulate my Linux-based environment as well as completely different styles that I might benefit from trying.

Answer 1

I use NetBeans for all my Java development work, also on a laptop. (I recommend not wiping the drive of a laptop, as special software for laptop-specific features, e.g. webcam and Bios configuration, might not run on Linux: use virtualization for Linux)

Besides NetBeans I have Notepad++ for all "quick & dirty" programming, though start-up times for NetBeans 6.8 are so good and memory consumption is quite low, I often have NetBeans open all the time. NetBeans has ANT, and it has an intergrated console (with input!) for your smaller projects. No need to run in a seperate window.

It takes some time to configure everything right in Netbeans & Notepad++ (think of templates, code-completion timing, indentation, colouring, paths, etc.) but once you've got it, it works like a charm.

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I tried Eclipse, but it's really a matter of taste; I never have liked SWT applications.

Answer 2

When I was doing Java development on Windows I used Eclipse as the IDE. It would be quite a different setup from what you're used to, and Eclipse does require a bit of tweaking before it behaves out but overall it was a fairly pleasant experience.

If you rely on outside packages for your development you might want to look into Maven. When I used it it was a really nice way to manage dependencies and be able to pull down the latest version of each package I relied, build it from source, and make sure my code still played nice with the latest release of said packages.

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If you are partial to VIM as an interface you might also be interested in this question: Vim Commands in Eclipse.

Answer 3

Well, there's always your friend the IDE! Both Netbeans and Eclipse are free to try out and work well on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

While there's something to be said for the dedicated editors of the world like Vi and Emacs, I sometimes find the jack-of-all-trades IDE that is dedicated to doing everything for your programming needs and doing them all adequately to be pretty handy.

Answer 4

If I had a choice I would probably use Eclipse. It is a good looking, easy to use and flexible IDE tailored mostly for Java, although with plugins (of which there are heaps!) it can do anything (or near enough :)

However at work we must use IntelliJ which is commercial. Great product with heaps of features and because it is designed for Java development it really supports it in as many ways as possible.

Both IDEs can be used with ANT or if you want something different, and I have heard more powerful, you could check out Maven.