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General: 5 Programs for/by Java Developers

At 12:39 AM on Feb 14, 2005, R.J. Lorimer wrote:

Software drives most of us. Not only do we spend our time developing software in one way or another, but additionally we all use software to develop... our software. Most of us find ourselves constantly looking for that edge, and we usually do so through advances in software or advances in our technique.

I have already posted two previous list-style tips:

General: 5 Books for Java Developers
General: 20 Websites for Java Developers

Today I'd like to post a new list and once again ask for community support in extending the list. Today's list will be useful software. My list is entirely composed of freeware and/or open-source software. That does not mean that your posts have to be composed of open-source software. I am just a poor (and penny-pinching) Java developer, and as such often find myself returning to open-source solutions.

To throw a twist in to the subject, I thought I would also allow the stipulation that the software listed doesn't have to be a tool to aid in Java development - but instead can be WRITTEN in Java. So either list a tool that aids in Java development (doesn't have to be written in Java) or list a cool piece of software written in Java that you use regularly. To make things more complicated, you must also write your response using ascii codes. Just kidding. Without further ado, here is my list:

jEdit - This is one of the eldest on my list. jEdit has been around quite a while, and has a fairly significant feature set. jEdit is a very versatile text-editor, and I still use it for a lot of my editing needs.

JDiskReport - JDiskReport is a great tool for inspecting where all of those sneaky gigabytes go on your disk drive. This is probably the one that will surprise people that it is on the list. It is one of the freeware programs offered up by Karsten Lentzsch through http://www.jgoodies.com . My home computer/server has always had plenty of storage - and usually only requires cleanups at the multi-gigabyte level, and even then only once in a great while. My laptop, however, is stuck with a rather paltry 60 gigabyte drive at the moment - and I find it quite helpful to use JDiskReport now and again to figure out where those 2.4 gigs of Linux ISOs are that I forgot about so I can delete them and make room for a few new Linux... ISOs.

Eclipse - Well, I probably don't need to put much explanation behind this one. Eclipse is personally my favorite Java development environment (IDE). Eclipse is highly active right now, and is constantly bringing new internal tools to the table with each release. There are other development environments out there - I'll let you, the community, bring up your favorite, and list its virtues to the other Javalobby readers. For those of you interested in Eclipse, please read some of my tip posting history , as I have posted quite often on using Eclipse to develop Java code.

Azureus - Gotta love this program. Torrents are the hot P2P technology right now, and more and more sites are providing torrent trackers in addition to traditional downloads. Azureus is a 100% Java torrent download client - and I must say, it works like a charm. This is the program that often produces my need for JDiskReport .

Ant - Ahh, what a classic. Ant is an incredibly comprehensive build tool written in Java. It has been a long time since I have worked on a project that didn't use Ant in some way to help with building and deploying. Ant is one of those tools that consistently proves itself over and over again.

One extra thing to note - all of the tools I mentioned above are written in Java - even the ones that don't have to be based on my rules. I can't say whether this is due to some elitist behavior on my part regarding Java programs, or whether it's just because these tools are, in fact, more relevant to Java development. Either way, they are great bits of software, and I recommend you check them out.