5 Best IDE for Java Programmers and Developers

Java is one of the most popular programming languages and used by millions of developer worldwide. It is a general-purpose programming language that features object-oriented approach. Since its first appearance in 1995, it has always been among top languages in the field despite being much older.

IDE or an Integrated Development Environment is a software program which helps in easing the work to be done by a developer by providing tools and features, IDE normally comes with an editor, build tools, debugger and much more. Nowadays all IDEs support intelligent code completion and intelligent syntax highlighting, also they provide support for VCS making a life of a developer a bit easier.

1. NetBeans
   Netbeans is an open source Integrated development environment written in core Java. It is the most loved and used IDE by Java developers. It provides modularity to code as it supports modular approach i.e., it allows applications to be developed as modules (as a component of a software). It is supported by all major OS.

NetBeans platform is basically a framework which simplifies the development of Java desktop applications. It is capable of installing modules dynamically. Besides Java, it also supports languages including PHP, C, CPP and HTML 5.

1. Eclipse
   Eclipse is a free to use open source editor which is beneficial to the beginner as well as professionals. Originally was a Java environment but as of today, it has a wide range of capabilities thanks to a large number of plug-ins and extensions The standard edition of eclipse comes with java and plugin development tooling. There is even plenty of other packages to choose from that includes tools for charting, modeling, reporting, testing and building GUIs.

The Eclipse Marketplace Client gives users access to a treasure trove of plugins and information supplied by an expanding community of developers. Before the introduction of Android, Studio Eclipse was used for developing android apps as it was considered best for Java environment development.

1. INTELLIJ IDEA
   IntelliJ Idea is an IDE developed by Jet Brains. This IDE offers users a free Community Edition, 30-day free trial for the Ultimate Edition, and costs $533 – $693 annually depending on features. IntelliJ IDEA, which supports Java 8 and Java EE 7, comes with extensive tools to develop mobile apps and enterprise technologies for different platforms. When it comes to cost, IntelliJ is a real deal due to the massive of list of features you get.
   It also provides support to AngularJS, CoffeeScript, CS, HTML, JavaScript, LESS, Node JS, PHP, Python, Ruby, Sass, TypeScript and more.

2. BlueJ
   It is a free Java development Environment designed for beginners, used by millions worldwide. “James Gosling” – The creator of Java itself once quoted ”One of my favorite IDEs out there is BlueJ”. This IDE is available across all major desktop platforms including Windows, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Debian and support for others. BlueJ is rich in documentation and its documentation provides well support to its users and to beginners. BlueJ was mainly developed for educational purposes but is also suitable for small-scale Development projects in Java.

3. jGRASP
   jGrasp a lightweight Development Environment which was designed focusing on the automatic generation of Visualizations in Softwares, considering it will further improve the Comprehensibility of software.
   This visualization is expected to produce a static preview of source codes Structure and proper visualization of Data Structures at runtime.

jGRASP is written in Java and runs well on all platforms with JVM in it. Besides Java, it supports C, CPP, Objective-C, Python, ADA, and VHDL. It also provides a UML feature similar to BlueJ; it comes with an integrated debugger and workbench specially formed for Java. It is fully written and implemented in Java and was developed in Samuel Ginn College of Engineering at Auburn University at their department of computer science and software engineering.