http://www.gexperts.com/index.html
Gel is the best IDE I have used from all the IDEs yet.
Eclipse
JCreator
NetBeans
JEdit
It has the .NET look and feel as well. Gel isn’t multi-platform though, only Windows users can run it.
If you are a Windows user you will want Gel.
Gel is just so damn flexible and fast.
It has the most beautiful interface and I feel so comfortable using it.
I urge you to at least try it. You will not regret it.
I’m going to take it for a drive. I doubt it will usurp Eclipse from my desktop for the heavy stuff, but I’m already feeling my small project IDE (JCreator) is about to get zapped.
JCreator is a great IDE, especially with it’s flexibility and look and feel and it’s got an instant load time.
Gel has obviously been made with someone who has:
A. An obsurd amount of time on their hands
B. A lot of team members
JCreator is a small project. Gel is a large project. Gel has only been around since 19 March 2003 but it has come very far in that time, much further than many other IDE’s which can only point to 1 thing:
See second paragraph.
Gel looks nice … if I only could bring it to work…
No refactoring tools… bummer.
It is nice looking… specially for the size which is an order of magnitude smaller than Eclipse.
I think similar to above… maybe I will try it for my smaller projects where I otherwise would have fired up jEdit. I don’t think I will replace Eclipse with it soon.
Ah… cool. I will have to try that.
Nobody had the problem that it refuses to compile anything (‘invalid handle’ or so)? That it forgets about the project?
The tool look really nice, but it totally refuses to do anything useful for me.
Hm, gave it a try @work in NT4, and there I could bring it to work easily … think I’ll have to check @home again…
They’ll have to pry Eclipse out of my dead hands first
[quote]They’ll have to pry Eclipse out of my dead hands first
[/quote]
That can’t be hard, can it?
Gel has my vote too!
JCreator LE is a bit too light, and the others are too heavy for my taste… Gel is just right, cool.
http://koti.mbnet.fi/akini/java/docs/javaide.html
Gel is a good choice on lowend machines with less than 512MB memory. But if you have a decent machine then Eclipse or similar will give load of useful features.
I used to run eclipse on a machine with 396 mb memory.
Patience is a virtue they say
I’m running Eclipse on a machine with 192MB RAM (a 128 and a 64 chip, go figure), and it runs just fine.
I’m on 128MB 
Heresy! It’s not written in Java! 
But seriously, one of the things I value in NetBeans and Eclipse is that they are both platforms bigger than simple IDEs and that they can self-host stuff you are debugging be it a IDE extension or a Java web server like Tomcat, is awesomely useful. My only complaint against Eclipse is the lack of ‘big project’ state - i.e., only one user context - oh and the SWT (I’m a Swing fan).
[quote]My only complaint against Eclipse is the lack of ‘big project’ state - i.e., only one user context - oh and the SWT (I’m a Swing fan).
[/quote]
Just to pick up on that comment - what kind of “big project” state are you talking about?
Things like launch configurations can be stored in configuration files, library locations can be configured via variables and adjusted on each machine, and shared Ant scripts can be used for build tasks. What other things would you find useful? Or have I misunderstood your comment?
Been using JBuidler for a bit now…
I’m at the point where if you want me to stop using it you’ll have to pry it otu of my cold-dead hands 
[quote]Just to pick up on that comment - what kind of “big project” state are you talking about?
Things like launch configurations can be stored in configuration files, library locations can be configured via variables and adjusted on each machine, and shared Ant scripts can be used for build tasks. What other things would you find useful? Or have I misunderstood your comment?
[/quote]
It may be I’m missing something in Eclipse. With NetBeans when I switch to a different project, all my mount points change, a different set of files are visible in the editor, even the window layout and menu bindings can change. Whereas with Eclipse I have all my ‘projects’ visible at once (here a project is just a directory mount) which can get quite messy when I have several complex projects on the go.
But if there’s a way to doing this with Eclipse I’d love to know!
