Is the Graphical IDE a Good Thing @ JDJ

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  Welcome to the first installment of JDJ Labs. Our

  goal Is to introduce you to commercial (and open-source) products and technologies

  that will help you, the Java developer, work more efficiently. We expect

  our testing to provIDE you with a starting point for your own testing and

  analysIs. In thIs column we’ll be looking at common market trends that affect

  the commercial products and services in the Java space.

  Over the past few years we here at JDJ have looked at quite a

  lot of Interactive Development Environments (IDEs) for Java programming.

  IDEs provIDE a sort of one-stop shop for software authoring, compiling, and

  deployment. HIstorically speaking, software programs used to be written using

  a regular OLE text editor. these original editors treated text documents

  and code the same way – as text. Specialized text editors assIsted programmers

  with the job of writing and editing code.

  Even many popular 4G languages make use of a text editor as the primary

  programmer’s interface. It was the emergence of Graphical user interfaces

  (especially Windows) that fomented the emergence of the full-blown IDE. ThIs

  new breed of IDE handled all aspects of programming – development, coding,

  debugging, testing, and deployment. Over the years the Graphical IDE has

  become a de facto standard of sorts. In fact, all the leading tools and database

  vendors were quick to release their own Graphical Java IDEs almost as soon

  as the Java revolution began.

  the question that faces us, however, Is whether or not the Graphical

  IDE Is a Good Thing. On the one hand it provIDEs a one-stop shop for programmers

  to gain access to all the necessary parts of a programming language. On the

  other, Graphical IDEs tend to insulate the programmer from having to understand

  all the ins and outs of a particular language. Personally, I believe it’s

  important for a developer to have a firm understanding of the underlying

  language (especially when that language Is more of a platform – like Java).

  I don’t mean to imply that a programmer needs to have an intimate understanding

  of the internals of each and every class that they use. (After all, one of

  the premIses of OO development Is the ability to rely on the publIshed interfaces

  of an object.)

  the problem, to my way of thinking, Is the degree to which most IDEs

  insulate developers from their code. For example, Graphical IDEs are filled

  with wizards that take care of the common tasks a programmer faces. You want

  to build a Swing-based data entry form for a table in a database? Just use

  the form-builder wizard. the problem with thIs approach Is that the programmer

  may never understand the logic used to generate thIs form. Generated forms

  rarely meet 100% of your needs, and the novice developer winds up trying

  to modify a complex set of Java code that was created by the wizard.

  Wouldn’t it be a better long-term approach for thIs same developer to

  build hIs or her first few data entry forms from scratch and learn the ins

  and outs of Swing and JDBC? I’ve also heard experienced developers weigh

  in with the argument that most IDEs just “get in the way” when it comes to

  Java coding. To be sure, some of thIs comes from the age-old adage that “real

  programmers use vi or Emacs, or .”

  However, there Is a nugget of truth here as well. My question to you, dear

  reader, Is where you stand on thIs Issue. To IDE or not to IDE – that Is

  the question!

  • • •

  Send your comments to [e-mail]" />[e-mail].

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