Introduction

Content

Apply

Reflect

Extend

Interactive development environments (IDEs)

This module has been written with the assumption that you are using Sun's Java Development Kit (JDK) for the compilation and interpretation of your programs. However, there are other software development environments for Java available.

Most of these other environments are Interactive development environments (IDEs). IDEs are useful for automating some of the steps in production of a program. Most people who program extensively use an IDE, but IDEs do not allow anything different to be achieved, compared with using the basic JDK. 

One advantage of using the JDK for development is that it is free. Many software developers, through personal preference, do not use any IDE tools, for programming in any language. However, many do use user interface design tools. Apart from cost, a good reason for using the standard JDK in a module like this is that it exposes the operations that would be "behind the scenes" when using an IDE. When you understand fully what these operations are, you may prefer to use an IDE. 

For the production of large scale software systems, IDEs can provide tools to speed up and help manage the coding process. However, there are also costs associated with IDEs. In addition to their purchase price, perhaps the most significant cost is the amount of time and effort that needs to be invested in learning to use a sophisticated IDE. It is often difficult to learn to use an IDE until after one knows how to program, at least to some degree, in the language the IDE is to support.

After completing this module you will have sufficient knowledge of the Java programming language, the processes of compilation and interpretation, and the way Java programs may require the use of class libraries to be able to learn to use Java IDEs should you choose to do so.

At the time of writing there are no free IDEs for the Windows environment, but there are for Unix. 

Interactive development environments: Summary

IDEs support the steps of software production 
They may also provide: 

user interface design tools 
interactive debugging 

The IDEs use the same Java language
The result of working with IDEs is the same as working with the JDK
Most IDEs have a significant cost in terms of the learning required to be able to benefit from their sophisticated features.

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