only one language. Most include not only programming language–specific
features like code highlighting, to help you read and browse code more
quickly and efficiently, but also contain a compiler and debugger and even
build automation tools. If you read through the details earlier in this chapter
of using make with C, you can understand the value added.
So, what is the downside? Well, you can’t run a typical IDE on a server
because you need a graphical interface, so if you are working on code that
will run on a server that only has a command line or text interface available to
you, you need to make sure you are comfortable with traditional methods.
This doesn’t mean you can’t use a local desktop machine for development
using an IDE and then push your code out to the server, but it means you
should cover your bases—just in case.
The most commonly used IDEs seem to also be used most frequently by Java
developers. We discuss several of them in this section. You should download
these IDEs directly from the providers to ensure that you install the most
current and standard versions.
Oracle, which owns Java, provides an IDE for Java called Oracle JDeveloper.
It is most commonly used in enterprise settings, where a team of developers
work together using a standard tool. It is the least popular of the three
mentioned here. You can learn more about it from
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/developer-
tools/jdev/overview/index.html.
NetBeans is an extremely popular IDE that works with multiple languages. It
is now owned by Oracle but was started by student programmers who were
looking to create more useful tools for their needs. Others asked to contribute
code, and soon NetBeans developed into a commercial program with plug-ins
to extend its capabilities, many contributed by a large supporting community.
Sun Microsystems, which developed and owned Java, bought NetBeans and
released it under an open source license. When Oracle acquired Sun, it also
acquired NetBeans; due to its popularity, it is worth a look. You can learn
about and download NetBeans from https://netbeans.org.
Eclipse (see Figure 40.3) was originally created by IBM but has been spun off
to a foundation created just for it. The nonprofit Eclipse Foundation
coordinates efforts of volunteers and companies that contribute time, money,
and code to this open source project. Like NetBeans, Eclipse is very widely
used and popular. It supports multiple languages, and there are many plug-ins
available to extend its capabilities.