Ben Galbraith's Blog

I Love Intelligent Tools...

I’m writing some Java2D code, and I notice that IDEA (my code editor) highlighted parts of my code:

Check out the caption at the bottom of the window. It turns out (as any good Java2D programmer knows) I’m reversing the width and height arguments — but how did IDEA know? Whether its lexical analysis or a special case built into the tool, wow! This kind of stuff is infinitely useful.

(cross-posted on Married... with Children, my personal blog)

Comments

• That is a nifty feature! IDEA is a hugely great tool that got me using IDEs - what a lovely introduction to a new world. After another contract using Eclipse, i was starting an opensource project here on java.net and had taken some time off to work on it, and just then the IDEA marketing folks announced free licenses for opensource developers, which i was very pleased to hear about through javalobby cos the timing couldn't have been better.

  So I applied for one of these free licenses for opensource developers. But they said there was no source code on the project, so try again later. Darn, i wanted to use it to write that source code!

  A few months later when i got to committing what i had done, i asked them again, saying "Look, my source code - nice effort, huh?! :)". They said, sorry for you, the forums weren't active enough, try again later. D'oh!

  I guess i should blame myself as a cheapskate for not wanting to shell out 500 bucks in the first place, which is a bargain for a superb tool of your trade that you gonna use everyday, but i was disappointed and pissed off at the time cos people are fragile beings, innit. On a conscious level i probably interpreted their rebuff as saying, "Look buddy, we said 'opensource developers,' and sorry to rain on your parade but your 'source code' on your 'opensource project' aint worth a dime, no offense." It was a crushing blow ;)

  Anyway, as they say everything happens for a reason, and now i'm hugely happy using Netbeans, which just keeps getting better, so...

  Thanks and apologies Ben for using your blog entry as platform to write this story on. I enjoyed writing it and feel much better :)

  Posted by: evanx on January 18, 2007 at 01:27 AM

• IDEA rocks! By the way, if you want a free copy, you can always get the "early access" version - a free registration is required, but the software is generally a very stable preview of upcoming efforts from JetBrains. Highly recommended piece of kit!

  Posted by: pcholakov on January 18, 2007 at 01:53 AM

• Yeah, I'm addicted, too. IDEA also matches parameter names against available locals and offers them as the best proposal on completion:

  
  void forward(InetAddress source, target) {
  }

  void doIt() {
  InetAddress source;
  InetAddress target;
  InetAddress other;
  ...
  forward(

  The next step in evolution would be if they just filled in the whole parameter list at once ...
  

  Posted by: mernst on January 18, 2007 at 02:34 AM

• Damn, again, I hate HTML comment forms. I know, that's what preview is for.

  What I wanted to say: after "forward(", press C-S-Space, Return and again.
  

  Posted by: mernst on January 18, 2007 at 02:36 AM

• evanx: Maybe it's because I hope to sell software someday, maybe because I know how hard it is to write good software, but for whatever reason, I actually like supporting great ISVs by buying their product. I spend thousands of dollars on ISV products each year because I feel its the right thing to do.

  Posted by: javaben on January 18, 2007 at 08:59 AM

• Ben: I discovered this feature because I *wanted* to use the width as the height but I was pleased and happily surprised to see that IDEA was able to catch such a mistake.

  Posted by: gfx on January 18, 2007 at 10:51 AM

• We use JBoss as the app server, Spring as the app framework, MySql as the database, hibernate for Data access and many more open source software. Guess what, one of the very few payware we use is IDEA. Its worth exceeds its price.

  Thanks "pcholakov " on the tip, will register asap.

  Posted by: ganeshread on January 18, 2007 at 03:24 PM

• evanx, look for other pricing tiers

  Posted by: denka on January 19, 2007 at 10:43 AM

• You know what else rocks about idea? intelli sense in String literals, xml files etc

  for example, when I say:
  new JLabel("new ImageIcon("resources/images/labelImage.png")

  I can intellisense (CTRL + space after resources/ and images will come up, etc. etc.

  So so good when using a xml heavy framework like Spring...

  I've been a personal license user for years now. I used to be a power Eclipse user(wrote lots of plugins and all) but haven't looked back in a long time...

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  Posted by: huang_lar on March 16, 2008 at 12:55 PM

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