What non-free tools are popular amongst Java developers

Question

The vast majority of developers I interact with are using Eclipse (I prefer NetBeans) and will leverage many of the free plugins that are available. However, many of them are using few if any tools that require monetary payment.

Have developers ever considered that this may be unwise and that they are compromising their own productivity? Are there certain types of tools that the majority of developers will pay for? Likewise, are there tools they would like to use but aren't because they aren't free?

Answer 1

Many software companies will buy some code obfuscation tool, and they are usually not free (or free for trial only).

Some will also buy good coverage tools.

Answer 2

Intellij is a great tool, especially compared to Eclipse IMO.

Answer 3

although i prefer to write software with open source libraries, i really like using IntelliJ. Having worked for about a year with eclipse, it definately boosts my productivity.

I am now considering purchasing javarebel which should give another productivity boost.

on the other hand, using a library where the source is not available, would feed akward, because would not know how it works, debugging would be much harder, and it could potentially contain security problems wich no chance of detection.

Answer 4

Intellij is probably the most popular 'paid-for' tool that I know developers use. I've worked at client sites where they regard it as so productive that they have site-wide licenses, whereas some similar sites will use (the free) Eclipse or NetBeans.

There's a huge motivation not to pay for stuff. But if doesn't have to save you that much time to be worthwhile. The per-seat/per-day developer cost in large enterprises is surprisingly high. If you claim that Intellij saves you, say, 2-3 days productivity in a man-year, then it'll have paid for itself (this is largely a subjective argument, I would say, but I know independent consultants who pay for Intellij themselves).

Answer 5

I like NetBeans as well, but I know many people who pay for MyEclipse, for its added features. The price it quite reasonable as well (~50$).

Answer 6

JIRA and FishEye improve productivity and they are not restricted to Java.

Answer 7

JProfiler for memory profiling etc

http://www.ej-technologies.com/products/jprofiler/overview.html

Answer 8

JUnit Max for continuous testing in Eclipse.

Answer 9

We have been using Jira + Fisheye + Crucible. While the first two are just your standard tools for tracking issues and viewing/searching the repository, the third tool Crucible has been invaluable. It is a tool to help with code reviews.

http://www.atlassian.com/software/crucible/

It has increased the amount of code reviews we do dramatically as well as giving us some tracking that bugs got fixed and the code was reviewed.

In addition, we have some floating licenses for YourKit http://www.yourkit.com/

That we use quite frequently to sort out memory and performance issues.

We try to follow the mantra: First, write it so it works. Second, optimize only what needs optimization.

In order to optimize, you need to know where the bottle necks are, and profiling is one of the best ways to find out. You pick the slowest thing and fix it, profile again, if it's fast enough you are done. If not, pick the slowest thing and fix it, rinse and repeat.