I think it's good to know how to program with an editor and Ant.
Once you really understand what's going on with them (all the classpath stuff,
incremental building etc), it's a lot more efficient to work with IDEs and
overcome their shortcomings. Because you will eventually find yourself in a
situation where you need to automate something or do something else no IDE
provides support for.
But on the other hand, the everyday programming work is MUCH faster with instant
javadoc, real-time compiling, refactoring, special editors for properties or
layouts and other nice features you get by using a good IDE.
Of course there are some people who really don't care about the "internals" and
are quite happy with IDEs that hide all the dirty details. And they seem to be
quite productive, too. I guess you just need to decide which group you belong
to.
Ville Oikarinen
> I think it's good to know how to program with an editor and Ant.
>
> Once you really understand what's going on with them (all the classpath stuff,
> incremental building etc), it's a lot more efficient to work with IDEs and
Did you mean to say "without IDEs" here?
> overcome their shortcomings. Because you will eventually find yourself in a
> situation where you need to automate something or do something else no IDE
> provides support for.
Well, that's what plugins or ant scripts are for. Some IDE's support such
kinds of customizations.
> But on the other hand, the everyday programming work is MUCH faster with instant
> javadoc, real-time compiling, refactoring, special editors for properties or
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> quite productive, too. I guess you just need to decide which group you belong
> to.
Cheers
robert
Ville Oikarinen - 07 Oct 2003 13:25 GMT
> > Once you really understand what's going on with them (all the classpath
> stuff,
> > incremental building etc), it's a lot more efficient to work with IDEs
> and
>
> Did you mean to say "without IDEs" here?
No. I mean that it's more efficient to use an IDE if you know how to do the same
things without it i.e. understand all the concepts.
> > overcome their shortcomings. Because you will eventually find yourself
> in a
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Well, that's what plugins or ant scripts are for. Some IDE's support such
> kinds of customizations.
That's true. But I think it's easier to learn ant without an IDE, first. You
know, one thing at a time so if there are problems you know where to look. If
you try to learn java basics, ant basics and IDE basics at the same time, how
can you know what breaks when it breaks?
But as I said, some people like to start using IDEs right away and succeed quite
well. There are many learning strategies.
Ville Oikarinen