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Java Integrated Development Environments for Visual Basic Programmers

I decided to move from programming in Visual Basic to programming in Java after Microsoft abandoned Visual Basic "Classic" and forced everyone to rewrite their programs in VB.Net. There is only one Visual Basic IDE so the first obstacle was to choose a Java IDE. It had to be comparable to the IDE I was accustomed to and, in particular, it had to to provide a "drag and drop" graphical designer for producing graphical user interfaces. The standard Java visual components do not include "data bound controls" but there are equivalents such as the open source SwingSet. NetBeans and JDeveloper come with tools to connect a GUI with the database and I believe there are similar tools in the Enterprise editions of Websphere and JBuilder.

Visual Basic comes with a drag and drop designer for printed reports. iReport is a capable free candidate and is now available as plugin for NetBeans. There is a stand-alone version for use with other IDEs. Early adopters of VB will be familiar with Crystal Reports which works with Java.

I chose NetBeans but, at the time, Eclipse did not have an adequate GUI developer and JDeveloper was not free. NetBeans (and Eclipse) have the added advantage that you can use them as the basis for any similarly structured applications you may develop. Despite the overwhelming popularity of Eclipse I would still advise refugees from Visual Studio to choose NetBeans. It now boasts a GUI Builder (Matisse) that is far better than the other Java IDEs and better than Visual Studio. NetBeans are currently adding the enterprise tools from Java Studio and the Java Server Faces environment from Java Studio Creator. Much of this is available by selecting plug-ins to Eclipse but if you are used to Microsoft dictating your development environment you may prefer to hand over the task to Sun.

You should be aware that if you change to another IDE you probably won't be able to use the new visual editor to change your GUI. There is no standard way of representing the extra information that the editor needs. Your GUI will still work as before because the output of all the editors is standard Java code that you can change if necessary. The change may also reqire locating and importing some libraries that are not included in the Java Development Kit.

I believe the following is a complete list of full-featured Java IDEs. Send me an email if you think there is something missing. A more comprehensive survey of Java Development Tools can be found at Roedy Green's excellent Java and Internet Glossary. Mitch Stewart has a review of Java GUI Builders that includes some form designers in addition to full IDEs.