Completely independent of a particular version of Java. Any JDK will do. Versions for PC/ Linux/Solaris. Will probably have a long life so the learning curve won't be wasted. It is very flexible and can host many different types of tools, including (in the near future) team collaboration tools. It will format your code, write code skeletons, insert JavaDoc comments, etc. It is integrated with the JUnit testing framework and has a refactoring layer for improving existing code.
One nice feature is that it gives you warnings and errors as you type. You don't need to compile to see that you have mis-typed something. You can link it to the JavaDoc. It will do typing completions, etc.
Has a learning curve. Some of its terminology may not be familiar to you. Some of its menus/key strokes are not standard for your platform.
Download for free from http://eclipse.org. You can also get the source code if you like. You can even join the project.
Advantages
Completely independent of a particular version of Java. Any JDK will do. Versions for PC/ Linux/Solaris.
Disadvantages
No graphical gui builder. Some setup is a bit awkward untill you get used to it.
Where/Howmuch
Download a free 30 day version from http://www.allaire.com. It WILL expire. Pay and download also possible.
Full price is $130. Upgrades have been inexpensive, but this is a new company. Kawa was previously owned by tek-tools. We are working to make this available for $35 for students, but don't know yet if this will be possible.
To use Kawa you also need to download the JDK from http://java.sun.com.
Advantages
I don't know much about this but it is cheap or free and similar to Kawa. You can point it to any version of the JDK.
Disadvantages
Unknown -- Windows only, though.
Where/Howmuch
There is both a free version and a very inexpensive (for education) "Pro" version. http://www.jcreator.com. The free version is probably all you need.
You can find some information about setting it up at: http://csis.pace.edu/~wolf/JCreator/JCreator-project.htm
Advantages
Cheap. Gui builder (not needed). Now available on many platforms.
Disadvantages
The instructor only uses this on the Macintosh OS X. He has no other experience with it.
Where/Howmuch
http://www.journeyed.com Foundation version $40. Pro version $100. (You only need the foundation version.)
Download from http://www.inprise.com (Back it up).
Advantages
Includes Java, C++, and Pascal. Runs on PC and Mac (Other versions for Solaris/linux and for cross development to Palm...). Good value for the money. A professional, cross platform IDE.
Disadvantages
Depends on a particular version of Java so you may need to wait for updates. There is lots of documentation, but it is all on CD.
Where/Howmuch
http://www.journeyed.com $120, upgrades about $80.
J++ (Microsoft) is Not Java
Visual Age for Java (IBM) has a nice GUI builder but you can't read the code effectively.
You can use just the JDK from http://java.sun.com with any editor. Textpad from Helios software for example. (http://www.textpad.com) $27. Notepad does NOT work well, however. You can also investigate Sun's Forte for Java and the open source Eclipse, which is a successor to Visual Age.
Last Updated: August 16, 2003