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macOS Java IDE for OS X

geodome

geodome

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 22, 2006
32
0
London, UK
Hi

I am new to Macs in general. I just bought my first Mac (it's a Macbook) after being thoroughly sick of crashes and viral infection of Microsoft Windows. I am also an avid Java programmer. What Java IDEs are available on the Mac Platform?

What are the pros and cons of Xcode2?

How does Eclipse compare to Xcode2?
 
There are quite a few, the one most people here swear by is Eclipse which I believe is also available for Windows as well as OS X, XCode isn't bad though (I actually perfer it slightly but haven't used eclipse much, most people prefer Eclipse)
 
Another vote for Eclipse and against Xcode for Java development. Xcode is great for Objective-C, but it more or less sucks for Java development. Eclipse isn't the best IDE out there, but it's the best free one (IMO) and the cross-platform support and plugins make it a winner in my book.

Note that you'll need a 3.2 version (not officially released yet, but stable) for an Intel Mac.
 
geodome said:
Hi

I am new to Macs in general. I just bought my first Mac (it's a Macbook) after being thoroughly sick of crashes and viral infection of Microsoft Windows. I am also an avid Java programmer. What Java IDEs are available on the Mac Platform?

What are the pros and cons of Xcode2?
Click to expand...

I don't have any problems with XCode2. I use Eclipse when I develop on Windows, but I never saw any need to get it for OS X when I already have XCode (not that XCode is better than Eclipse, I'm just saying its good enough). Just try both and see which one you like better.
 
I'll put in a good word for netbeans, some people say it's really slow when compared to other IDEs. But I like it because of the java doc that pops up while I am programming because I am not good enough to know exactly what method I want.

I'll say this up front, I have not tried any other IDEs just to let you know.
 
I am new to the OS X as well. I think I will use Eclipse over IntelliJ given that SWT is part of the Eclipse Development Platform. I really like the SQL plugin for the IntelliJ IDEA. Btw does Eclipse support HTML/CSS/Javascript/PHP development?

The Eclipse website states that all I need is JRE to run Eclipse. However, the java compiler is not part of JRE. Is the compiler part of the Eclipse 3.1.2 package? Is the SWT package part of the Eclipse package as well? Am I suppose to download each package individually.

As far as I know, Mac OS X comes with JDK 1.3. How does this affect my Eclipse installation? Btw How can I upgrade the JDK to the latest?

Ideally, I want to have the latest Java compiler and JRE installed on my Macbook, usinf Eclipse. The SWT package is so much better than the Java Swing and AWT. LOL. I wanna use to SWT package, which is not available for IntelliJ IDEA.
 
geodome said:
As far as I know, Mac OS X comes with JDK 1.3. How does this affect my Eclipse installation? Btw How can I upgrade the JDK to the latest?

Ideally, I want to have the latest Java compiler and JRE installed on my Macbook, usinf Eclipse. The SWT package is so much better than the Java Swing and AWT. LOL. I wanna use to SWT package, which is not available for IntelliJ IDEA.
Click to expand...


You can get the latest JDK by becoming a developer on apple's site (http://developer.apple.com, don't worry it's free!) then you can download lots of software including XCode and the latest version of the JDK
 
geodome said:
I am new to the OS X as well. I think I will use Eclipse over IntelliJ given that SWT is part of the Eclipse Development Platform. I really like the SQL plugin for the IntelliJ IDEA. Btw does Eclipse support HTML/CSS/Javascript/PHP development?
Click to expand...
One of the advantages of Eclipse is the enormous amount of plugin development going on. Take your pick from below.
SQL plugins
PHP plugins
HTML etc plugins
You can also install the Eclipse Visual Editor for building UIs. It's not as mature as Visual Studio or XCode2 but takes a lot of the work out of creating Java UIs.

The Eclipse website states that all I need is JRE to run Eclipse. However, the java compiler is not part of JRE. Is the compiler part of the Eclipse 3.1.2 package? Is the SWT package part of the Eclipse package as well? Am I suppose to download each package individually.
Click to expand...
I can't remember exactly what comes with eclipse since I've always had a JDK installed before installing Eclipse. And I'm on the server development side so haven't actually had to create any GUIs, but I've played around with the Visual Editor plugin and it allows you to use SWT elements as well as Swing. As for updates and plugin installation, normally this is done via Help/Software Updates. You specify where to look for updates and new code and it downloads and installs them. Any plugin developer worth his salt will tell you exactly what to do for installation.

As far as I know, Mac OS X comes with JDK 1.3. How does this affect my Eclipse installation? Btw How can I upgrade the JDK to the latest?
Click to expand...
Hmm, I'm pretty sure it now comes with JDK 1.5. I've done a couple of updates since I got my iMac, but I believe they were just incremental updates to 1.5. I think the default is JDK 1.4 though even if you have 1.5 installed ... it's been a while since I set up my Java environment, and I only had to do it once, and I'm sitting at work in front of my Linux machine, so can't be more specific.

Ideally, I want to have the latest Java compiler and JRE installed on my Macbook, usinf Eclipse. The SWT package is so much better than the Java Swing and AWT. LOL. I wanna use to SWT package, which is not available for IntelliJ IDEA.
Click to expand...
Although Eclipse is pretty large, it is free so you're not losing anything by installing it. I don't think anyone can tell you what's the best IDE for you. I normally use the command line for basic development environment setup (ie. crafting my build.xml file for easier integration into our automatic build tools) but use Eclipse for most of my actual development, especially for refactoring.
 
Eclipse is the best IDE imo, not just for Java but for anything, thanks to the amazing list of plugins for it.

Another plus is the great support is has from IBM. Many large-scale companies, like the one I work for, use Eclipse IDE as their main development enviroment. So knowing Eclipse can be a big plus in your next job interview.
 
I have to add my vote to Eclipse. I have tried to use XCode for Java before, but I always end up going right back to Eclipse. True that XCode of course is more "Mac-like" since it's Apple's own, but Eclipse was developed specifically for Java and it can be very frustrating to be without its features once you get used to them. One of the best things I'm attached to in Eclipse is Refactoring. It makes it so easy to change things, and is no match for basic find and replace. I have used XCode for Objective-C and it works well, especially since so much integration is used if you're building a graphical app in interface builder. Otherwise, I'll stick with Eclipse for Java.

I have some info on my website (in my sig) under "Java info" that details how I installed and configured Java 5 with my Mac. It may be useful if anyone is having trouble.
 
You guys are great. Hehe.. installation was a ease. This is my first post on MacRumors from my new Macbook. It is so beautiful. :D
 
geodome said:
Eclipse cannot start.

Does this has to do with the recent OS X Update from Apple?
Click to expand...
What happens? How did you install it? How are you launching it?

It needs to be launched from the same folder as all the rest of the supporting files.

To install it I moved the eclipse folder into Applications, then attached the process (the file with the blue circle icon) to the dock.
 
I unzip the tar.gz file to obtain the Eclipse folder on the Desktop.

Then I move the folder to the Application folder and set up the Eclipse icon in the dock. When I click the icon, I get an error message that reads "See the log file ...."
 
I'm not sitting in front of my Mac at the moment so can't confirm this, but I believe log output is written to the Console. Can you see if there's any eclipse related statements in the Applications/Utilities/Console?
 
SWT Compatibility Libraries for J2SE 5.0 Release 4

The SWT Compatibility Libraries address compatibility issues between J2SE 5.0 Release 4 and the SWT_AWT bridge in Eclipse 3.2RC3 and later on Mac OS X Tiger. See the Eclipse Javadoc for details on how to use this library in your SWT application. The SWT Compatibility Libraries do not replace any existing Java installations and are not compatible with Java releases prior to J2SE 5.0 Release 4 for Tiger.
Click to expand...

The above quote is from Apple's Developer Site. I dowloaded Eclipse 3.1.2
 
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