I have an application of some 85 "frames" which was originally written with JBuilder 5 - an early IDE. The app is pure Java and I think it's all mostly Swing and AWT. So, the core question is: What IDEs can help me both maintain my existing application, possibly convert it from standalone to JSP, and hopefully also help with new development via a GUI interface?
Last summer ('08), I downloaded Eclipse and it sure beats JBuilder, except for the lack of a visual GUI WYSIWYG editor - the Visual Editor was dead even then. I like Ganymede (the current version) standard toolset, but lack of a visual editor concerns me. (And, I had a lot of trouble integrating it into an existing development environment.) While it lets you work with existing code, it didn't even have a (current) GUI editor, so working with my old code was the old-fashioned way ("blind").
In doing my homework, I found a company that makes/made a current-version Eclipse-based IDE that had a full-blown GUI environment that they claim make it easy to develop one GUI and then deploy it either as a stand-alone (pure Java) app, or deploy it as a web page (using JSP, etc). And, they suggested, it would let you work with existing applications, something none of the other systems do - that I've found so far. IIRC, it was about $250 for a license.
Unfortunately for me, life-events prevented action at that moment - long story short, I lost the link to their site. I thought it would be no problem to find them again, but the number of "plug-ins" and partners has EXPLODED! They now have nearly 1200 plug ins available and about 60 GUIs! YOWZER!
I came here to SO and got the idea from one of the several questions on "best IDE for Java" that NetBeans 6.5 is worth a look-see. I tried it. It's horrifically slow, even on a 3ghz box with 3G memory, etc. But, it integrated into the environment more quickly and I like its deployment details. I then found out that its GUI environment is only good for new code, and some here on SO suggest that it's a bit brittle and that if you have to hack it much (which I will need to do!) then it may break the ability of the GUI to continue to be editable in the IDE...
I've spent countless hours doing my homework on this, especially including looking here on SO and the web pages to which they often point. A lot of articles on Java IDE GUIs are old now, but I've read them anyway, and learned a lot...
Ideally, I'd like to find one tool that:
- Competently, and without undue hassle works as a modern IDE for Java with a good GUI
- Can help convert between types of applications - stand-alone vs JSP (mobile?)
- Can work with existing applications (not written using that toolset).
- Doesn't hook the code in to proprietary libraries.
If not in one tool, as multiple tools, it would still be nice to have all these abilities!
I do not require "free!"
Your input appreciated!