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Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac

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Tom Anderson wrote:
> Arne Vajhøj wrote:
>> desktop apps => Eclipse IDE for Java Developers
>>
>> server apps => Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers
>
> Roughly. AIUI, the SQL support is in the EE edition, but not the standard
> edition. If you want to use SQL on the desktop, you might like to get the EE
> edition.
>
> The EE edition is basically the standard edition with more perspectives and
> views. I [sic] don't believe it alters anything that's in the standard edition. So,
> if you can spare the disk space, i would suggest getting the EE edition, so
> you have a pretty complete Java development environment, even if you don't use
> much of the EE bits. You never know, at some point, you might want to write a
> little web application.

If you don't have the disk space for the EE edition, you don't have enough 
disk space to do Java development.  Just get the EE edition.

> Although, having said all that, i would suggest not starting with an IDE, or
> at least not one of any complexity. An editor with automatic indentation and
> syntax highlighting will do; TextWrangler is good, and actually, XCode is a
> pretty good Java editor, even if it is lacking as an IDE.

This is controversial advice. The merit of command-line builds is that you 
learn your stuff. The downside is you get off to a slightly slower start. I 
concur that it is worth the effort to master using Java from the command line.

"What?" you ask. "Who said anything about command line?"  Well, if you take 
Tom's advice and avoid an IDE, your editor won't do builds, debugging, 
classpath management, syntax-checking, expression completion or all the little 
Java niceties that the IDEs provide. You also lose the dashboard for resources 
like database systems, web servers, application servers, build profiles and 
such. You will have to use the command line to build your systems, i.e., the 
"java" and "javac" commands, Ant or Maven.

If you use an IDE like NetBeans or Eclipse then you get all that assistance 
and convenience, but you might get sloppy in your learning.

I favor a third approach. Use an IDE, but always check your work with a 
command-line build in a separately checked-out workspace (you MUST use version 
control ALWAYS, even on solo projects). I've worked on major projects 
(big-iron Federal systems) where the command-line build differed significantly 
from the developers' Eclipse-based ones, and it took two people two days for 
each release to convert the Eclipse build data for the official build. If you 
find a discrepancy between your IDE build and your command-line build, fix the 
former to match the latter.  Builds should never rely on a particular IDE or 
editor.

As for which editor to use, vi and emacs are just fine in the modern world if 
you do eschew an IDE.  Which I wouldn't.

-- 
Lew
Honi soit qui mal y pense.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Friz.jpg

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Getting started with Java on a Mac Wayne Dernoncourt <wayned@panix.com> - 2012-01-13 09:41 -0500
  Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2012-01-13 09:04 -0800
  Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Jim Gibson <jimsgibson@gmail.com> - 2012-01-13 10:01 -0800
    Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Wayne Dernoncourt <wayned@panix.com> - 2012-01-13 13:26 -0500
      Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Jim Gibson <jimsgibson@gmail.com> - 2012-01-13 16:11 -0800
        Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Wayne Dernoncourt <wayned@panix.com> - 2012-01-16 13:48 -0500
        Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Wayne Dernoncourt <wayned@panix.com> - 2012-01-16 20:24 -0500
          Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-16 21:20 -0500
            Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Wayne Dernoncourt <wayned@panix.com> - 2012-01-17 05:33 -0500
              Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> - 2012-01-17 11:30 -0800
                Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-17 17:34 -0500
              Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-17 17:32 -0500
            Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2012-01-19 13:09 +0000
              Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-01-19 08:35 -0800
                Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-19 19:08 -0500
              Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-19 19:05 -0500
                Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Tom Anderson <twic@urchin.earth.li> - 2012-01-20 21:50 +0000
                Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-20 21:15 -0500
                Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac rossum <rossum48@coldmail.com> - 2012-01-21 17:44 +0000
                Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-21 15:59 -0500
      Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2012-01-13 16:43 -0800
    Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> - 2012-01-13 16:58 -0800
      Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-14 22:46 -0500
    Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2012-01-13 23:12 -0400
      Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-01-13 20:13 -0800
        Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Gene <gene.ressler@gmail.com> - 2012-01-13 20:47 -0800
          Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Peter Duniho <NpOeStPeAdM@NnOwSlPiAnMk.com> - 2012-01-13 23:16 -0800
          Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Steve Sobol <sjsobol@JustThe.net> - 2012-01-13 23:56 -0800
          Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Lew <noone@lewscanon.com> - 2012-01-14 11:17 -0800
          Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-14 22:52 -0500
        Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2012-01-14 11:00 -0400
          Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2012-01-14 22:30 -0500
    Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2012-01-14 22:45 -0500
  Re: Getting started with Java on a Mac "John B. Matthews" <nospam@nospam.invalid> - 2012-01-13 22:29 -0500

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