Java Tool Recommendations

Many of our customers come to us, asking for tool recommendations. Choosing and evaluating tools is an incredibly time consuming endeavor. But I got some GREAT recommendations at the Programming the New Web conference, hosted by Bruce Eckel last week in Crested Butte, CO. I’ll try to capture some of those that I found most interesting here, and will try to fill in the blanks as time permits.

In my opinion one of the most intimidating things about Java programming is choosing tools. Microsoft programmers have it easy. Yeah, they’re shoe-horned into their tool selection, but at least they don’t have to go out and evaluate a bunch of (ill suited) tools on their way to creating that first project! Of course, they’re free to choose tools outside of Visual Studio, but do they? Really? Probably only the really stubborn ones!

Yeah, Linux and Java programmers are a stubborn bunch. We like our tools and we like the flexibility to choose them. I so strongly prefer the Unix command line that I run MKS on my Windows box (and will admit to a preference of VIW over WordPad, ssshhhh). But for NEW programmers on the block, it’s a lot to deal with.

So here’s a shortlist of software to use for Java development …

Development Environment: Eclipse (no surprise here)

Unit Testing: JUnit (another given)

Code Coverage: EMMA (use Maven plugin)

Functional Testing: FIT

Quickstart WebApp Development: AppFuse

Version Control: Subversion

Continuous Integration: CruiseControl

Detecting Duplicate Code: PMD’s Copy/Paste Detector (CPD)

I’ll add more as I come across them in my notes.