Jedit, Jext & J: Java-based Editors Compared

An anonymous reader writes "There are times when I want a lean, mean editor and times when I enjoy a good, bloated editor packed with wizards. We compare the programming editors Jext and J to Jedit and offer a revised opinion of the best Java for Linux."

Comments

A few comments about jedit

[sosedada]

I was reluctant to try out a java based editor (I'm a C++-er all the way :), but nedit was acting strangely as packaged in Mandrake 9.0, so I gave it a shot.

I really like the hyper-searching and the tabbed windows. There are a few annoyances such as the order it uses when you switch to the next buffer (uses opened order rather than Z order), but my main complaint lately has been speed. It has become quite a hog, probably due to too many cool plugins. I'm using the latest java from Sun. Perhaps I'll try one mentioned in the article.

All in all, I've been using it for about a month and I don't think I'll give it up.

i am not compelled

[amorico]

Summary:
J: interesting and--Oh look! shiny php object!
Jext: tricky installation, but nothing interesting in the five seconds I spent reviewing it.
jEdit: reviewer liked this one the most, but was biased from the beginning.

Whatever. Why waste the time to even write a review if you are not even going to take the time to go into depth? The reviewer complains about bloated IDEs like eclipse or netbeans and then does not even point out why ANY of the reviewed editors are a compelling choice over an IDE. Eclipse and Netbeans make enterprise deployment, unit testing, and building a lot easier because they were created with that in mind. They only implement editing functions to the extent that they support iterative development cycles and integration with software engineering tools. Do the editors support automatic code copmletion based on classpath and in-scope variables? If I wanted souped up text editor I would use emacs or vi, whiach are FAR better than this j* stuff. An editor is great when you are developing alone, but when you are part of a team of developers, things like CVS integration, code style enforcement, and automation of repetitive build tasks are essential. How do any of these editors fare in that respect? You'll never find out in this review.

-a