[svlug] Java IDE's

[David N. Welton]

Larry Colen <lrclug at red4est.com> writes:

> As I've never done a GUI, but have heard that Java has become a real
> language,

I should hope that they've managed to create a somewhat positive image
for it after pouring millions of dollars into marketing and
engineering...

> One of the other engineers is concerned with being able to learn
> everything in time to meet a rather aggressive schedule, and has
> asked me about Jave IDE's. I know that there are several out there,
> but I'm afraid that the closest I've come to using an IDE lately is
> running make from within emacs.

I think something like Tcl and Tk, possibly combined with a C backend
will allow you to create a GUI faster, but it depends on your needs,
your skills and your team.  If you do things right, you can almost
view Tcl+Tk as a sort of templating language and do as much of the
backend as you want in C or C++.

> If you have any reccomendations for IDEs to use (or avoid) I'd
> greatly appreciate the benefit of your experience.

Eclipse seems to be the buzzword du jour, although it is open source,
which is cool.  Depends what you want out of an IDE, I guess.

If you are new to doing GUI's, I'd suggest having a look at some user
interface books.  It sounds like you're already a competent
programmer, so it might be worth it to try and put some time/energy
into learning about what makes a good GUI.  One book I've enjoyed in
particular is "About Face".

Good luck!
-- 
David N. Welton
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