Re: any free java gui IDE's?

From: David Segall (invalid_at_nowhere.net)
Date: 03/15/04 

Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 12:39:45 GMT

Joseph <karloj@bigpond.com> wrote:

>hi
>
>are there any free java IDE's out there..i've downloaded the sdk as i need
>to construct a GUI interface...maybe there are some IDE's out there that
>provide drag and drop component functionality? (ie drop button on form
>etc?) I'm currently using the XEmacs editor to code...it has a java JDE
>menu, but that's about it it seems..
>
>thank you
>Joseph
Netbeans (www.netbeans.org) is free and Open Source. I think you will
find it the best choice. Borland's JBuilder Foundation
(http://www.borland.com/jbuilder/foundation/) is also a free download.
Oracle's JDeveloper (http://otn.oracle.com/products/jdev/content.html)
is a free download but the license severely restricts what you can do
with programs you write if you do not pay for it.

Eclipse (www.eclipse.org) is a popular Open Source IDE and there are
free or cheap plug-ins like
http://www.cloudgarden.com/jigloo/index.html,
http://www.assisiplugins.com/index_start.html and
http://www.eclipse.org/vep/ that provide WYSIWYG GUI development.

Sun One Studio 4 Community Edition, which is derived from Netbeans, is
still available, without charge, from
http://jsecom16d.sun.com/ECom/EComActionServlet?StoreId=8&PartDetailId=FJCI9-401-TL9M&TransactionId=try&LMLoadBalanced=
but has been superseded by Studio 5. Sun suggest you use Netbeans if
you want a free version.

IBM has a free version of Visual Age for Java at
http://www7.software.ibm.com/vad.nsf/FrameData/Master?OpenDocument&FSet=1&Doc3=4589&Title=Overview&DPart=Overview&Doc4=4594.
It has a limit on the number of classes in your application and, in
any case, has been superseded by Websphere Studio Application
Developer (http://www-3.ibm.com/software/awdtools/studioappdev/).
Websphere is based on Eclipse but has many enhancements including a
WYSIWYG editor for GUI's. It is not free but a 60 day trial is
available.

The popular IntelliJ IDEA (http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/index.html)
also includes a GUI builder. It is not free but you can download a 30
day trial.

I believe that this is a complete list of free Java IDE's that include
a WYSIWYG GUI builder and contains references to all the commercial
vendors of such a product. Please submit a follow-up if you have a
correction.