[Sussex] Java development IDE / compiler...

[Pete Wright]

You're right; the reason Debian does not include Sun's JDK (Java
development kit) is that Sun's license is restrictive and source code is
not available. However, if you are not averse to using non-free (in the
speech sense) software, java.sun.com is, as someone else mentioned, the
very best place to go to download the development kit. Aside from
anything else you'll also be able to get the very latest stable and
pre-release versions. 

In terms of IDE, I do like the Eclipse environment very much, but it is
worth pointing out that it, in its current state, is primarily aimed at
experience programmers, the kind of people that want to knock up server
side enterprise apps more than anything else, and who know what JUnit
testing and Refactoring are all about. It does however have absolutely
no support for point and click graphical user interface editing if you
intend to produce apps that run on the desktop. Sure you could hand code
these, but there is an argument that doing so is not really all that
productive. 

A good alternative, and one thoroughly supported by Sun is NetBeans
(www.netbeans.org). It supports unit testing, when you get into that,
rapid user interface development, server side development with servlets,
JSP pages etc etc, and is in fact a little faster than Eclipse. This can
be an issue if you are not using a state of the art machine (I do a lot
of development on a Thinkpad notebook for example). Both Eclipse and
Netbeans though are free (in both senses of the word) and very good. 

If you need to learn Java as well, then take a look on Google for Bruce
Eckel's Thinking In Java book. This is available for free download and
is a great introductory text. Sun also have a set of tutorials on their
java.sun.com website which are great. Alternatively take a look at some
of the tutorial articles over at www.javaworld.com. 

Hope that helps

Pete
(See you all for the very first time tonight)

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