Hi Curtis
I think 'best IDE' is like 'best flavor of ice cream' and is a matter of personal
taste, but here
are a few places to look. I highly recommend visits to Sun's Forte pages and
NetBeans.org, if for
no other reason than all the great places they lead.
AnyJ from Netcomputing
http://www.netcomputing.de
Free trial
Price: $198 USD
Platforms: Linux, OS/2, Solaris, Win9x, WinNT 4, Win2K
Bolero Component Studio from Software AG
http://www.softwareag.com/bolero
Price: ?
Platforms: WinNT 4
Forte for Java Community Edition, Forte for Java Internet Edition, from Sun
Microsystems
http://www.sun.com/forte/ffj/index.html
Community Edition is free, Internet Edition has free trial
Price: $495 USD for Internet Edition
Platforms: Everything supported by the competition plus others that support the Java 2
SDK v1.3
This is where I'd suggest anyone interested in Java IDEs look first. Besides
information on their
own products, Sun provides links and information for competing products.
JBuilder, JBuilder Professional, JBuilder Enterprise from Inprise/Borland
http://www.borland.com/jbuilder
JBuilder Foundation and Enterprise free trial offers
Price: $49 - $2,999 USD
Platforms: Linux, Solaris, Win98, WinNT 4, Win2k
Kawa Professional, Kawa Enterprise from Macromedia/Allaire
http://www.allaire.com/products/kawa/index.cfm
Free trial
Price: $129 - $695 USD (single user)
Platforms: Win9x, WinNT 4, Win2k
NetBeans from NetBeans.org
http://www.netbeans.org/
Open-source IDE
Price: Free
Platforms: Any that support Java 2
Sun's Forte for Java is based on NetBeans. See the NetBeans FAQs for details. This
is a definite
must-see in my book. Like with so many open-source projects, this one has tons of
free add-ons,
tweaks, mods, goodies, tips and fun.
VisualAge for Java, VisualAge for Java Enterprise from IBM
http://www-4.ibm.com/software/ad/vajava/
VisualAge for Java Entry Edition free after registering with VisualAge Developers
Domain
Price: $123 - $2,849 USD
Platforms: Linux, Win98, WinNT 4, Win2k
Visual Cafe Enterprise Suite from WebGain
http://www.visualcafe.com/products/visual_cafe/enterprise_edition/
Price: $4,995
Platforms: Win9x, WinNt 4, Win2k
Source Studio from KeyEdit Technologies also claims JSP and servlet support but the
product page
is currently off-line. http://www.keyedit.com/sstudio/
Java World has a big list of Java IDEs at
http://www.javaworld.com/javaworld/tools/jw-tools-ide.html
Infoworld gave IBM's VisualAge for Java Enterprise Edition higher marks than they gave
VisualCafe
for Java Enterprise Suite or JBuilder Enterprise Edition.
http://www.infoworld.com/testcenter/comparison/991213tcrc.html
Earthweb's Gamelan remains a great source of Java information in general.
http://softwaredev.earthweb.com/java
michael-thomas.com keeps an updated list of Java IDEs at
http://www.michael-thomas.com/java/javacert/java_ide.htm
If you find any of that helpful, please feel free to encourage ANYONE to respond to my
request for
some Tomcat Virtual Host setup examples. ;-)
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