Re: A java environment for me
balayo@mindspring.com writes:
>Which java development tools should I get? Debian have anything for
>java 2? I looked at Jbuilder foundation, but that puppy is *huge*.
>
>how 'bout emacs support?
Emacs itself has quite a lot of support for many languages, including
Java. Some Java-supporting things that come with Emacs:
- automatic indentation (Tab or C-M-\ etc. in Java mode)
- syntax highlighting (M-x font-lock-mode)
- in-file navigation (M-x imenu for a list of methods; you can also
bind this to a mouse button to get a popup menu)
- in-file word/name completion (M-/)
- multifile navigation (the Tags system: M-. and the etags command)
- a tree view of source files and their contents (M-x speedbar)
- compilation and automatic opening of errors in source files (M-x
compile, move to the *compilation* buffer, and press Enter on an
error)
- a debugging interface that displays the source files, highlighting
the currently executing position (M-x jdb)
The good thing about Emacs support is that things generally work the
same way for almost any programming language (even Makefiles and LaTeX
documentation etc.). Things like M-/ work even for text files.
One missing feature in Emacs's Java support is automatic browsing of
documentation. C-h C-i works for C (e.g., when the cursor is on a
printf call, C-h C-i takes you to the libc info node for printf), as
does M-x man (visits manual pages), but neither work for Java.
All of the above features are documented in the Emacs info pages.
There's also JDE (Debian package jde) for Emacs, which someone
mentioned. I haven't used it, so I'm not sure what additional features
it has.
As for non-Emacs things, if you want a nice graphical debugger, look
at DDD. Its major feature is that it can visualise data (draw a graph
of pointers, for example) in addition to normal debugger features.
--
-=- Rjs -=- rjs@lloke.dna.fi
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