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- An IDE (Integrated Development Environment) is a single program that wraps
- everything you need to program with. An IDE usually consists of a code editor,
- debugger, and a compiler. A good IDE can make you more productive. Without a IDE
- you would be stuck writing all of your apps in notepad and compiling via command
- line – which is not bad for learning how to program. A good IDE has syntax
- highlighting which makes the code easier to read and error highlighting which
- makes finding that missing semi colon easier. Here is a list of three IDEs that
- work well for me.
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- NetBeans
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- NetBeans is the most productive IDE for large java projects. NetBeans is great
- at detecting errors in your code. You can also have multiple projects open in
- the same window which is great for anyone who is constantly flipping between
- projects – even if they are in different coding languages. This is a must have
- program for everyone looking to develop Java. This program also supports PHP,
- JavaScript and C/C++.
-
- Eclipse
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- Eclipse is a very popular programming IDE; however, it is harder to use than
- NetBeans. The largest benefit of Eclipse is that it has tons of templates for
- you to use. Eclipse also has a better GUI creation tool than NetBeans has.
-
- JCreator
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-
- I want to warn you that this is a old IDE. You hate yourself if you decide to
- use this program. The only reason I am putting this on my list is because I
- think it is great for teaching people how to program – it’s what my high school
- used. Unlike Eclipse and NetBeans, it gives you very little help when writing
- your code. There is no autocompletes or dropdowns when you are accessing members
- of an object. This does not even give you red highlights when you have a syntax
- error. What it instead shows you is the errors that you would receive in the
- command line when you compile this project. This is great for AP Computer
- Science students who have to memorize/learn what certain errors mean.
-
- Intellij
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- \*Update 2018
-
- I have converted to a full time Intellij user since writing this article in
- 2015. This program is simply fantastic in every aspect – expect ram usage. If
- you have never heard of Intellij or any of the other JetBrains products I would
- highly recommend you check them out. The main reason I switched was because
- Intellij could scale nicely to 4k and NetBeans did not. The user experience
- overall feels nice.
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