Java IDES

Hey im new to java and currently working only on java se but im ready to dwelve in jakarta ee so up until now ive used vscode and for sm projects i didnt use even vs code ive only used gedit and maven just to get familiar with whats going one with them without any support from ides so now that ve kind of getting into jakarta ee  I've been seeing and feeling, the general consensus leans towards VS Code being the lighter hitter in the resource department. It boots up quick, stays snappy even with a few tabs open, and doesn't feel like it's hogging all your RAM for breakfast.

Eclipse and intelliJ, on the other hand, feels like the seasoned heavyweight.cant i use vscode for java ee too?and im curious about jakarta ee too so im hoping without ide support i might able to work with that so that i can be confident later when working with ides .am i wrong to think this way ?

VSCode is popuiar, I think. But if I'm not mislead by its name, it's a descendant of Microsoft Visual Studio, which was originally designed for the C programming language.

A lot of what makes Eclipse and IntelliJ such resource hogs is the "intelligent" part of the IDE. Eclipse, especially is actually just an OSGi framework, which is very lightweight, but the JEE Eclipse spin is loaded with plugins specifically designed to support different IDE functions. There's a lot of them, and just getting each one initialized and running is relatively expensive.

I don't know to what extent VSCode supports all of those features, however, since it was originally a Windows product and I stopped using Windows over 10 years ago, so I work with Eclipse and IntelliJ myself. You certainly can try it, and it's definitely be more capable than a dumb generic text editor, but how well it works for you is something you'll have to determine for yourself. Hopefully some who use VSCode can offer their opinions.

I should also note that another IDE: NetBeans, is very popular. It was originally a product named Forte from Sun, but it has grown over the years and at least for a while was the standard IDE for the Java development team.

Hey Tim, thanks a ton for that breakdown! Really cleared things up.About the idea of mine to hv to learn everything behind the ide like how the configurations works and whats java projects really looks like is its meaningless?like wrestling with config files and dissecting the raw structure of Java projects... it's got me wondering. Is that whole "under the hood" exploration actually worth the time investment these days?does spending hours digging through XML and build scripts might be overkill, maybe even a bit of a time sink when I could be, you know, actually programming more features and solving problems?

One wonderful thing about modern-day IDEs is that they no longer force you to put your project files in IDE-specific locations. That was a real pain back decades ago if you hadn't set things up for the IDE you wanted to use. Now you can put anything anywhere. and even keep projects in directories not owned by the IDE.

Although in practical fact, the best organization for a typical Java project is the one preferred by Maven. It can work with any modern IDE or with no IDE at all and because it standardises the locations of project files, it means that you can pass the project on to someone else and they'll know where to find things immediately.

If you don't prefer Maven, Gradle lays things out in the same basic way. Ant doesn't force a directory structure, but you can set up Ant project tasks to operate on Maven-style directory layouts if you like. For most Java work (except on Android), Maven is generally the popular build tool, with some exceptions. The Tomcat webapp server, for example is built with Ant. Often the tool choice is based on the technology available when the project was designed (Ant is older)

IntelliJ and Eclipse projects contain metadata files that help the IDE but are not essential to doing command-line based builds with a build tool. Eclipse uses hidden files, IntelliJ uses a set of XML config files and there are no conflicts between the two. So the same project can be used with either IDE, although IDE context information (what files are being edited and so forth) don't carry over.

Thank you for the insights Tim,but hey if i wanna learn and understand the java underneath the ide ,i can manually set up everything by myself using terminal and simple editor right?even setting up servers and stuff?

Bhushitha Hashan wrote:Thank you for the insights Tim,but hey if i wanna learn and understand the java underneath the ide ,i can manually set up everything by myself using terminal and simple editor right?even setting up servers and stuff?

Been there/did that.  

If you want to learn the basics, it is often better to avoid an IDE altogether and write the command‑line/terminal instructions by hand. That applies similarly if you are revising for a certification exam. But if you want to create a project of any size, you will probably want an IDE.

BlueJ is an IDE designed for educational purposes, with the aim of aiding the understanding of the java language.

I tried using Dr. Java while working through the book Think Java (great book, by the way).  Dr. Java came out of Rice University in the 90s, but it seems to no longer be supported.  I've found jGRASP, another open source lightweight IDE, to be quite nice for my students.  Like Dr. Java, it has an interactions pane that allows to you to try out code without building classes.

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who replied. I really appreciate the guidance, advice, and encouragement. It means a lot  especially when learning alone!!