Richard Davies wrote: The UK has a good crop of technology pioneers in cloud computing - for example ElasticHosts, FlexiScale, Flexiant, OnApp - and also some strong government initiatives such as G-Cloud.
We will have to see whether this kind of technical leadership converts into swift mass-market adoption or not.
Some years ago I did all my coding in vi, then later in Emacs. I still believe these are great editors; I just don't use them anymore for Java development, especially J2EE application development. I'm much more productive if I use an IDE whose sole purpose in life is to facilitate product development. I can probably still write code faster if I use vi. However, I doubt I could meet my deadlines if all I had was a tool that was primarily meant to be an editor. Emacs is a great environment for setting up and using a development environment. However, it is for all purposes a code editor, not an IDE.
Developing distributed applications is a complex process, and developing the components that make up the application requires coordination and integration of different design and development environments. The software development cycle for the release of a product warrants the use of data and component modeling tools; sophisticated code editors; a fully integrated compilation and build environment; deployment tools; fully integrated debugger, unit, and integration testing environments; and source code version control. Nowadays, you have two options when developing J2EE software. One, use your skills to create a development environment that can use tools from different vendors cohesively and effectively. Two, buy something that provides this environment out of the box.
Which option would you prefer? If you're the only one developing the modules, you may have the luxury to go with the first option. However, if you're involved in the development of J2EE applications, you're much better off with a true integrated development environment that allows you to develop components autonomously, unit test them, test them in your application framework via integration testing, and deploy them into your runtime environment. That way you can easily share your development efforts with your team.
In addition, several IDEs offer refactoring capabilities that will allow you to modify component design after the code has been developed. Several IDEs in the market offer a large part of this functionality out of the box. I've worked with Borland's JBuilder and IntelliJ's IDEA. Both are excellent IDEs that support the development features mentioned earlier, including deployment to the main J2EE application servers, unit testing using JUnit, support for refactoring, and integration with source control systems. There are several other J2EE IDEs to choose from (e.g., WebGain's VisualCafé). Usually application server vendors' tools don't have the level of sophistication offered by J2EE IDEs.
Of course, cost becomes a factor. Some of these IDEs are fairly expensive and buying enterprise licenses can be a costly proposition. However, for large enterprise projects, the benefits accrued by saving precious development hours will be well worth the cost.
What role will the popular editors like Emacs and vi have in J2EE development? Well, some of the IDE vendors are incorporating these into their tools. For example, Java Development Environment for Emacs (JDEE) is a software package that interfaces Emacs to command-line Java development tools (e.g., JavaSoft's JDK). Similarly, TogetherSoft is incorporating vi and Emacs into their tools offerings.
Speaking of development tools, one of the requirements for any successful J2EE project is the right references - online and printed material that gets you the background information you need to get up to speed and hit the ground running. Recently, I came across a new style of books that has proved very useful in developing J2EE software. They're printed as a suite of "CodeNotes" from Infusion Development Corporation - guidelines from developers who have obviously spent some time in the trenches. I've looked at the J2EE and XML CodeNotes, and these are definitely handy references to keep at your desktop.
About Ajit Sagar Ajit Sagar is a principal architect with Infosys Technologies, Ltd., a global consulting and IT services company. Ajit has been working with Java since 1997, and has more than 15 years experience in the IT industry. During this tenure, he's been a programmer, lead architect, director of engineering, and product manager for companies from 15 to 25,000 people in size. Ajit has served as JDJ's J2EE editor, was the founding editor of XML Journal, and has been a frequent speaker at SYS-CON's Web Services Edge series of conferences, JavaOne, and international conference. He has published more than 125 articles.
Ajit,
I get a little tired of people who
equate 'vi' with a development environment. When was the last time you used 'vi' on Windows?
The fact is, 'vi' is used in the "Unix development environment". Unix was and still is, an OS written by programmers, for programmers. It constitutes a development environment with a powerful set of tools, (grep,
X-Windows, shell scripting, make, etc.).
Please, lets stop comparing apples to oranges, and compare the various IDEs to the Unix environment.
Thank You.
- Ron Theriault
#7
Weiqi Gao commented on 11 Jun 2002
Maybe the editor messed it up, but the article, as published here, make it sound like JDEE is a 'vendor product' while it is in fact an open source 'major mode' for working with Java projects in Emacs.
Maybe the editor messed it up, but the article, as published here, make it sound like JDEE is a 'vendor product' while it is in fact an open source 'major mode' for working with Java projects in Emacs.
I would love to use just Emacs, but I like and rely upon the intelligent method look ups in JBuilder quite a bit. If Emacs could do this, I would go back (Please let me know if this is possible).
Otherwise Eclipse is looking like a good free option that will do the auto-complete type things.
Anyone want to try and sell me on IntelliJ over Eclipse, please shoot.
#4
Dave Orme commented on 7 Jun 2002
Emacs + JDE + XDoclet provide very nice tools that support most of the features discussed in this article. Where Emacs currently falls down is in refactoring support.
However, the feature that has recently pushed me to a Java IDE over Emacs (for Java code only) is the new background syntax checker feature in Eclipse.
In MS Word, if you misspell a word, Word detects this as you type and highlights it with a squiggly line. In Eclipse if you make a syntax error in your code, Eclipse detects this as you type and highlights it with a squiggly line. ie: You no longer have to compile to find out about your syntax errors!
IMO, Emacs will catch up in refactoring support, but without implementing a background compiler (in Emacs Lisp no less) will never be able to syntax check as you type.
On the other hand, I configured C++ Builder to launch XEmacs on the current source buffer, current line# because I got so sick of the integrated editor.
You forgot to mention about Oracle 9iJDeveloper ;)
#2
Philippe Paravicini commented on 7 Jun 2002
Vi/emacs are hardly model Ts and punch-cards, more like a good Stradivarius. In the end, the difference is what lies between one's ears.
You can be equally productive using vi and emacs than using any of the various IDEs around.
I use Vim (thanks Brad Moolenar et.al.)
Here are a few reasons why I like it:
- its excellent test editing features
- syntax highlighting for practically ANY language
- i can compile/debug through the editor, the editor points out the compilation errors.
- i can write all sorts of macros (such as cleaning logs), and call out to the shell (DOS or Unix) and execute programs from vim (perl,python, java, etc..), including filters which can change the text in the current document (such as indenting an xml file, for example).
- use of complex regexp to do global changes accross a range of files
- I can use a common editing environment for ALL my projects, including coding, Docbook/SGML authoring, writing email, html, etc...
- lots of free available plugins doing an astounding number of useful functions (e.g. 'matchit' allows one to match xml tags within a document).
- When accessing a remote shell on a vi-enabled system (practically all UNIX/Linux systems) without a GUI I have all this power available using a very small pipe
That said, Vim does not do everything, and I do use other tools, such as jswat for debugging, togetherJ for UML, etc...
So, use your overpriced bloatware all you want, but don't knock those of us who are plenty productive on tried-and-true tools.
#1
Greg Brett commented on 7 Jun 2002
Vi and Emacs were good editors in the time befor there was light. Punch cards were good too but I don't see anybody using them. If your using Vi and Emacs your are programming with a Model T at Model T speed in the era of faster than light machines with 1 tera-byte of L1 memory! Get yourself a good IDE, Borland J-Builder or whatever and re-program yourself to it's functions. By the way let's not forget Borland created the IDE in it's Pascal Compiler at about the start of light time.
Ron Theriault wrote: Ajit,
I get a little tired of people who
equate 'vi' with a development environment. When was the last time you used 'vi' on Windows?
The fact is, 'vi' is used in the "Unix development environment". Unix was and still is, an OS written by programmers, for programmers. It constitutes a development environment with a powerful set of tools, (grep,
X-Windows, shell scripting, make, etc.).
Please, lets stop comparing apples to oranges, and compare the various IDEs to the Unix environment.
Thank You.
- Ron Theriault
Weiqi Gao wrote: Maybe the editor messed it up, but the article, as published here, make it sound like JDEE is a 'vendor product' while it is in fact an open source 'major mode' for working with Java projects in Emacs.
--
Weiqi Gao
weiqigao@networkusa.net
Weiqi Gao wrote: Maybe the editor messed it up, but the article, as published here, make it sound like JDEE is a 'vendor product' while it is in fact an open source 'major mode' for working with Java projects in Emacs.
--
Weiqi Gao
weiqigao@networkusa.net
Jason White wrote: I would love to use just Emacs, but I like and rely upon the intelligent method look ups in JBuilder quite a bit. If Emacs could do this, I would go back (Please let me know if this is possible).
Otherwise Eclipse is looking like a good free option that will do the auto-complete type things.
Anyone want to try and sell me on IntelliJ over Eclipse, please shoot.
Dave Orme wrote: Emacs + JDE + XDoclet provide very nice tools that support most of the features discussed in this article. Where Emacs currently falls down is in refactoring support.
However, the feature that has recently pushed me to a Java IDE over Emacs (for Java code only) is the new background syntax checker feature in Eclipse.
In MS Word, if you misspell a word, Word detects this as you type and highlights it with a squiggly line. In Eclipse if you make a syntax error in your code, Eclipse detects this as you type and highlights it with a squiggly line. ie: You no longer have to compile to find out about your syntax errors!
IMO, Emacs will catch up in refactoring support, but without implementing a background compiler (in Emacs Lisp no less) will never be able to syntax check as you type.
On the other hand, I configured C++ Builder to launch XEmacs on the current source buffer, cu...
Philippe Paravicini wrote: Vi/emacs are hardly model Ts and punch-cards, more like a good Stradivarius. In the end, the difference is what lies between one's ears.
You can be equally productive using vi and emacs than using any of the various IDEs around.
I use Vim (thanks Brad Moolenar et.al.)
Here are a few reasons why I like it:
- its excellent test editing features
- syntax highlighting for practically ANY language
- i can compile/debug through the editor, the editor points out the compilation errors.
- i can write all sorts of macros (such as cleaning logs), and call out to the shell (DOS or Unix) and execute programs from vim (perl,python, java, etc..), including filters which can change the text in the current document (such as indenting an xml file, for example).
- use of complex regexp to do global changes accross a range of files
- I can use a common editing environment for ALL my project...
Greg Brett wrote: Vi and Emacs were good editors in the time befor there was light. Punch cards were good too but I don't see anybody using them. If your using Vi and Emacs your are programming with a Model T at Model T speed in the era of faster than light machines with 1 tera-byte of L1 memory! Get yourself a good IDE, Borland J-Builder or whatever and re-program yourself to it's functions. By the way let's not forget Borland created the IDE in it's Pascal Compiler at about the start of light time.
In a surprise move Tuesday Oracle wheeled out its Big Data Appliance.
That’s the one it said in October would be ready sometime in the first half. Only nobody believed it meant early in the first half. Heck, it’s not even clear anybody thought Oracle could make the first half...
Rackspace Hosting, the service leader in cloud computing, on Thursday announced its acquisition of SharePoint911, an industry leader in SharePoint consulting, training, and "JumpStart" services within SharePoint. The unification of both companies provides capabilities to deliver ...
Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, on Thursday announced it's working with Microsoft to market school IT labs and one-to-one computing solutions that allow a cost effective delivery of innovative IT enabled education. These solutions are available throu...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
We have techn...
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In a surprise move Tuesday Oracle wheeled out its Big Data Appliance.
That’s the one it said in October would be ready sometime in the first half. Only nobody believed it meant early in the first half. Heck, it’s not even clear anybody thought Oracle could make the first half...
Rackspace Hosting, the service leader in cloud computing, on Thursday announced its acquisition of SharePoint911, an industry leader in SharePoint consulting, training, and "JumpStart" services within SharePoint. The unification of both companies provides capabilities to deliver ...
Wyse Technology, the global leader in cloud client computing, on Thursday announced it's working with Microsoft to market school IT labs and one-to-one computing solutions that allow a cost effective delivery of innovative IT enabled education. These solutions are available throu...
With Cloud Expo 2012 New York (10th Cloud Expo) now under four months away, what better time to start introducing you in greater detail to the distinguished individuals in our incredible Speaker Faculty for the technical and strategy sessions at the conference...
We have techn...
Nimble, the social CRM platform has announced the launch of Nimble 2.0, billed as the “most social” CRM platform on the market today. Nimble was designed entirely with social CRM in mind and is the first social business platform that empowers companies with the ability to get clo...
