It’s less than an IDE (see the next recipe), but more than a
command line. What is it? It’s an editor with Java support.
Tools such as
TextPad (http://www.textpad.com), Visual Slick Edit,
and others are low-cost windowed editors (primarily for MS-Windows)
that have some amount of Java recognition built in, and the ability
to compile from within the editor. TextPad has quite a number of file
types that it recognizes, including batch files and shell scripts, C,
C++, Java, JSP (see Section 18.7), JavaScript (a
client-side web technology), and many others. For each of these, it
uses color highlighting to show which part of the file being edited
comprises keywords, comments, quoted strings, and so on. This is very
useful in spotting when part of your code has been swallowed up by an
unterminated /* comment or a missing quote. While
this isn’t the same as the deep understanding of Java that a
full IDE might possess, experience has shown that it definitely aids
programmer productivity. TextPad also has a “compile
Java” command and a “run external program” command.
Both of these have the advantage of capturing the entire command
output into a window, which may be easier to scroll than a
command-line window on some platforms. On the other hand, you
don’t see the command results until the program terminates,
which can be most uncomfortable if your GUI application throws an
exception before it puts up its main window. Despite this minor
drawback, TextPad is a very useful tool. Other editors that include
color highlighting include
vim
(an enhanced version of the Unix tool
vi, available for MS-Windows and Unix platforms;
see http://www.vim.org), the
ever-popular Emacs editor, and many others.
Get Java Cookbook now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
