Java Development

[VBRocks]

Hi all,

I'm a Visual Studio.NET 2008 programmer (2008, 2009 MS VB MVP), and I've decided to try to write an application for the BlackBerry.  I downloaded the BlackBerry JDE from this site, and it is really, really horrible.  It's worse that VS 6...  almost like a glorified Notepad.  I'm very disappointed, and pretty discouraged about this...  Are there any other alternative development environments for developing for the BlackBerry?

Thanks so much for your advice!

[acowart · Accepted solution]

I think most users are transitioning to Eclipse and use the BlackBerry plugins.

[bikas]

HI,

I think you are guessing too early.

You should first try to develop alteast helloworld program using JDE. I always prefer using blackberry JDE. You will definitely like it when you dig deep. 

By the way, you can also use  Eclipse Plugin for BlackBerry development.

From here you can download BlackBerry JDE Plug-in for Eclipse. 

    http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/javaappdev/javaeclipseplug.jsp

Also Go through this link. This may help you to start.

     http://developerlife.com/tutorials/?p=427 

Regards

Bikas 

[marchywka]

"almost like a glorified Notepad.  I"

ROFL, yeah adding anything to notepad makes it too bloated.

I guess you wouldn't want my suggestion involving bash scripts and a simple editor or even vi?

Personally, I'd be thinking about how you support multiple-OS builds which leads to script based

development. Certainly for extreme programming with remote testers, it is nice to have

one-click [ed- not literally one-click but one up-arrow and cr from keyboard, even an IDE usually requires one-click

to get menu etc ] build, sign, upload, and even notify if you have an e-mail server available. I imagine 

ant can do that but if you already know bash there is nothing to learn.

 The IDE is fine when you need a debugger that looks like the target device. But, otherwise,

you can run your code from a command line and test in j2se for example.

There is no doubt that MSVC IDE can be a benefit while learning but now I have makefiles

and scripts for my c++ code. 

Message Edited by marchywka on 05-29-2009 02:08 PM

[VBRocks]

Thank you for your suggestions, I guess I will try Eclipse.  Just out of curiosity, I saw NetBeans when I downloaded the jdk, can that be used?  Is it any good?

[bikas]

Yes you can develop blackberry application using netbeans.

Here's some link that might help you.

    http://www.jonathanhfisher.co.uk/b2/?p=7 

    http://www.netbeans.org/kb/55/blackberry.html

But my suggestion is use Blackberry JDE.

If you for any reason don't like it then use Eclipse plugin.

Regards

Bikas 

[tbilisoft]

Netbeans is a pretty good tool for BlackBerry development.

It can be used along with BB-Ant-Tools

[VBRocks]

Thank you so much for your help!

I just downloaded both Eclipse and NetBeans. I need a few days to check them out and see which one I think is better before accepting.

Are there any other alternative IDE's that are any good?

[SergGr]

Personally I use JetBrains IntelliJ IDEA for most of developement + JDE for debugging + ANT for build script (I wasn't able to configure IDEA to use RIM's JDWP).

Pros: IMHO, IDEA is just the best development environment we have today.

Cons:

- IDEA is not free: license is about $600 for companies and $250 for personal usage. You could try free full evolution copy for a month;

- No integration with device simulator and thus no integrated debugging.

I use IDEA because I'm used to it, I love it, and, last but not least, my boss was able to persuade his boss to buy a license.

[tbilisoft]

You can use almost any convenient java-editor for you with Ant-scripts (BB Ant Tools).

To debug your applications you can use JDWP (Remode Debug Server) that comes with JDE installation package.