Java anyone?

I'm a programmer. Work day after day is churning out lines of code. But it's fun sometimes, as you wrack your brain trying to solve an elusive bug or producing just the right algorithm. The triumphant feeling you get sometimes justifies the previous scalp-scratching exercise. Ha! Don't let me scare you off though. I program mainly in Java, though I know alot others, just rusty in them by now.

As all programmers know, the tool with which you use to program is very important. My recommendation? vi. Yes, that Unix/Linux editor with an extremely steep learning curve. But once you get the hang of it, learning its nuances and secrets known only to the hardcores, it's a wonderful editor, not just for programming. Don't have Unix/Linux? Try gvim, the Windows version! vi (or vim) can do just about everything a sophisticated IDE can do, but at a much much much smaller size and faster speed. And there are several things it can do that modern IDE can't. vi has syntax highlighting (for dozens of syntactical stuff, even some obscure ones), text replacement, macros, hundreds of quick shortcuts to accomplish editing needs, code folding, method browser, method traversal, registers for copying, window splitting, sorting, aliases, key mappings, visual selection, regular expressions for just about anything, save options, encryption, initiating compilation within the editor, color schemes, allows plugins, and quite a few more I can't think of right now. Phew. Yes, it's that good.

But of course, you sometimes just can't beat the visual look of an integrated IDE. My favourite at the moment is NetBeans, which is a free open source development platform that supports just about anything about Java. It has official Sun support too! Of course, for those who do not prefer NetBeans, they usually prefer Eclipse, which appears more flexible as it is not limited to Java. Put in the right plugin, and you can start writing code in some other programming language. NetBeans is now version 3.6, while Eclipse is 3.0.

Download quick links: gvim, NetBeans, Eclipse.