Develop Reference

Java Development Workflow with Text-Editor and Commandline

I want to get started with Java! I have a bit of experience with C/C++ and Python development. For this i'm mainly using Emacs (a text editor) and the commandline, thus not using a heavier weight IDE for those kind of things.
I don't want to adapt my workflow to suit an IDE, but I don't know the Workflow (write, build, test) in Java so I thought about asking here. Searching the Web didn't give me good results.
Can someone give me the the basic workflow when developing Java with my requirements? I use Linux for all my programming.
Are my requirements/wishes even practical or should i consider using something like IDEA or Eclipse?
Can someone point me to documentation or blog posts about this topic or documents, that give a quick overview and/or examples on how to get started with Java (something for programmers with a little experience in other languages)?

For this I'm mainly using Emacs (a text editor) and the commandline,
thus not using a heavier weight IDE for those kind of things.
An IDE has many advantages over a text editor, mainly when navigating, debugging and refactoring code, but it is not required. Actually, working without an IDE is useful to understand the underlying technologies. My advice would be: Start without an IDE, and when everything works, try out some IDEs to see how they help you.
Can someone give me the the basic workflow when developing Java with
my requirements?
The basic workflow is (for any compiled language):
write source code
build
run
In the case of Java, that means:
1 Writing source code
You write .java files in a text editor, observing the right filesystem layout (file name = class name, directory corresponds to package etc.). You already have that covered.
2 Compiling the code
You compile the code using a Java compiler, possibly building a JAR or WAR file (depending on the type of application you are writing). You can do that manually by directly invoking javac (see for example Java - compile from command line - external jar ), but you should really use a build tool. The best tool to get started is probably Apache Maven or Gradle.
The basic idea is the same with both Maven and Gradle: You write a build file, which essentially describes your project and how to compile it (a POM file in the case of Maven, a build.xml for Gradle), then you can build by just invoking the build tool. The build tool takes care of all the nitty gritty like invoking javac etc. Most importantly, both also perform dependency resolution, meaning they can automatically download and use libraries that you use in your code.
3 Running
Finally, you run the program from the command line. How to do that depends on the type of program: A simple executable (or a Spring Boot application) can by run using java -jar myprog.jar, a WAR file must be deployed to a Servlet container (such as Apache Tomcat).
I hope this gives a general overview of How do I develop without an IDE?. For more details, look for specific questions here on Stackoverflow (or elsewhere), read the docs, and if all fails ask a more specific question here :-).

I agree with #sleske : if you really want to learn the language, it's good to start with a text editor. Later on you can use an IDE but by then you will know how the build process works and what exactly the IDE is doing. There exists no magic in coding. If something works but you don't understand why, it will certainly fail one day :)
Maybe some nice feature: I use Eclipse and added a vim plugin :)
And if you learn some useful shortcuts you can write code really fast (without a mouse)

You should download IntelliJ directly:
certain best practices like static import make your code more readable because you read it with a smart IDE. If you read code just with vim, the navigation between classes is not possible.
you have an easy access to a terminal and perform certain Maven or Gradle commands here.
I would not say the same with other languages (css, html).

JavaScript on Netbeans Scarce Code Support Features

I have difficulties coding in JavaScript with Netbeans. I can't see beforehand:
my mistypes,
relations between classes, functions and variables (dependency, parents-children etc.),
javadocs references (both original and imported for libraries).
THE PROBLEM is in:
heavy debugging because of primitive mistype and the use of irrelative substances;
time consuming browsing to find help for the context.
I TRIED:
Netbeans 7.4 (some basic Ctrl+Space lookup is supported, but very limited and usually useless);
Eclipse 3.8 (no context support);
These IDEs provide adjustable autoformatting and text mark-up (braces, clever tabs, text colors etc.) This is all very helpful, but insufficient. After having to migrate from Java to JavaScript for job routines, I now understand how much work had I automized and saved coding Java. I just feel I'm missing Ctrl+Space after a dot for Javadoc and Ctrl+LeftClick to navigate to declaration. It results in more time creating similar things in code.
THE QUESTION IS:
How to get JavaScript language docs for Netbeans?
How to make Netbeans show relations between classes, variables and functions so that I don't see what can't be done from this context? For JavaScipt like it does for Java?
Here are Netbeans JavaScript snapshots with everything that's needed. Where is that all? I don't see it in my IDE:

I can't add comments because i haven't reputation enough...
I am a Java developer since Java version 1.1, and Netbeans's truly fan since version 5.5 (Eclipse? What's that thing?).
I am currently developing Javascript code in Netbeans 7.4. It offers code completion exactly as it does with Java (plus javadoc-style documentation popup, Ctrl-Space behavior, colouring code...), almost the same pros and cons as developing java, php or another language...
And yes, it saves a lot of time of searching for object's methods and properties, misspelling...
---- Text added since your last editing some minutes ago....
OK, i know i'm not impartial, forgive me... Take a look to this, it may be helpful:
Netbeans 7 HTML5 webapp javascript debugging
Maybe I don't know really what are you looking for, but in my opinion it is a good stuff. If you can debug an HTML5 webapp to such deep level...enough for me.
About the inline documentation in a javadoc-style, my NB shows a pretty nice one (bundled, i didn't plugged anything...). Of course, it could be more complete or functional... Take a look to this image:
Next I'll try webstorm... Good luck!
---- More Text added .... jQuery documented API integration...
Ok, let's see how NB manages itself to show you a wonderful javadoc-style documentation popup of jQuery API...
It looks so good to me... I love it :)
I only added the developer version of jQuery (the one commented and uncompressed) to the src folder of my opened Java project... nothing more... I think this is some kind of magic... Maybe you can add your own commented .js libraries in the same way. Just explore the jQuery .js to learn how to comment your code.
Just one more resource for you:
Adding jQuery to your NB project

I think, that you cannot expect the same level of tool support for Java (strongly typed, object oriented) and JavaScript (weakly typed, functional).
Compiler for strongly typed languages knows, what is allowed in given context, but in JavaScript is the situation drastically different. Everything is dynamic and you cannot tell what is mistype.
Anyway I think, that latest NetBeans 7.4 has really great support for JavaScript including code completion.

You can see here for such IDE. Also you can take PhpStorm, Idea, WebStorm.

I think the best IDE for JavaScript would be the JetBrains WebStorm.
The company has also made IntelliJ Idea IDE for Java, which is in my humble opinion the best one available.
You can download free version here: http://www.jetbrains.com/webstorm/
I'm using it a lot myself and I can really recommend it.

Steps below helped me to partly resolve the problem:
Changed project type from HTML5 to PHP to exclude libraries folders from code analysis as described here;
Configured at Tools - Options - Editor - Hints - Javascript to "Suggest for current line" instead of "Warning".
tune up and use correct tags for javadocs as described here;
Resolved proxy connection problems to make IDE see the Internet: Tools - Options - General;
updated Netbeans to 7.4 from 7.4RC1;
Now you have:
- fast code completion popup window load,
- docs texts, including pop-up code completion docs for your own comments,
- can navigate to declarations from other files Ctrl+LeftClick,
- have suggestions on errors,
- type recognition failing if you mistype function or variable name to smth impossible.

Is it possible to have real time collaboration in an online IDE?

I am actually trying to create a browser based IDE for educational purpose to code java language programs. I want it to be something like eclipse orion except that the IDE will be capable of compiling and debugging java language code (and it will be only a bare bones IDE). And also, I want to add real time collaboration to at least the editor part of the IDE.
Would it be possible to create an online IDE that would have real time collaboration like the google docs? Also, is MobWrite one of the ways of achieving it and is it good?
If it is possible, please inform me.
Thank you very much in advance.

I think there is an interesting option out there by IBM(Just rode in a blog),
called "Web Browser-Based Interaction with the Eclipse IDE".
Have a look at this link:
http://www.rodenas.org/blog/2007/10/16/eclifox-web-browser-based-interaction-with-the-eclipse-ide/
So the answer is yes, it is possible somehow.
I hope it helps.
Update:
There is a similar question already on that topic(but browser interaction with the IDE is not mentioned), have a look at it, maybe can be helpful:
Real-time collaboration in Eclipse

In theory, anything is possible.
In practice, I'm not sure that collaborative programming ... where lots of people are hacking on the same files in real time ... is going to be productive.
Programs are qualitatively different to text / markup documents. When you two people are simultaneously editing a program, semantically conflicting edits can break the "work" in a far more fundamental way than conflicting edits on a document. I don't see this being an effective way to write programs.

Sure, JavaWIDE is what you are looking for: http://www.javawide.org
It has concurrent editing, and you can compile and run directly in the browser.
JavaWIDE is free and sites are available to educational institutions.
Feel free to try it out (no account needed) at http://sandbox.javawide.org

Cloud9 IDE has multi-language support has recently released a new collaborative tools including a new real-time collaborative editing feature (with authorship info), Group Chat and File Revision History timeslider. Further explained in https://c9.io/site/blog/2013/10/new-collaboration/
Mostafa,
The Cloud9 IDE Developer behind that Collab

It depends on the purpose of the IDE. JavaWIDE provides a great IDE for introducing programming concepts for novice programmers at the beginning of their programming classes. JavaWIDE will probably never be used for professional programmers.

Koding has a real time collaboration tool (with a bunch of cool stuff) where you can import your projects really easy. It also has a free VM with root access. Definitely worth checking out. :)

I recently saw Compilr and It seems pretty decent. You can run it inside a browser, full collaboration work is supported and Its cross browser and you can run it on your devices as well.
Nice thing is that it also includes some basic courses for you to learn coding which is exactly what you are looking for :)

For an on-premise install (you don't depend on external servers/services ) you could try Eclipse + saros (http://www.saros-project.org/), saros depends only on XMPP but you could build your own server locally (http://www.igniterealtime.org/projects/openfire/)
For web based collaboration tool on-premise too I've been developing this: https://github.com/juanitomint/Space_Editor
It's based on nodejs,Extjs,ace editor and git, contributors are welcome

How to implement a java IDE with Java

I would know how to implement a Java IDE using Java language.
My IDE should :
compile, run and debug a source code.
import or export file from a directory.
allow generating code from class diagram.
allow modifying Java text editor.
allow generate Swing source code from, I mean it will offer a ability of drag and drop, then it generates source code.
it gives possibility to save, delete, undo and redo.
it support JUnit, maven and Ant.
So, I ask about technologies that will help me to realize this Java IDE. How to implement this IDE?

Except for the "drug" part which I am not sure of, I can tell it is not a trivial amount of work and of course I'd use the Java's GUI API
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_%28Java%29

Will not be sarcastic like others around here so I will try to give a short answer.
Despite there are some very very mature Java IDE's (Eclipse,NetBeans,INtelliJ ,JCreator,Codeguide etc) around it is your right to do another (who know someday maybe better then existing ones).
This being said you can do it
Swing (here you have to start from
zero)
use RCP Eclipse
Netbeans platform
QT it might be a solution
etc.
All of this support drag and drop and have support for creting class diagrams...
I warn you it is not easy....not easy at all.
Eclipse was audited recently and it has apx. 46 millions line of code
Good luck !

I'd safe yourself loads of time and just use Netbeans out of the box. Does everything you've listed and more. It's also free and has a module architecture to allow new functionality to be added fairly easily.

First steps developing in java applet. Directions

I have to develop a small applet using, of course, java. I am absolutely ignorant about java and the java world. I dont' have the time to learn java "the programming course way". I just need to hack together this thing and then I won't code in java anymore (I assume).
My question is relative to the following subquestions:
is it feasible to code in java without eclipse, maven, etc ? I am pretty sure it is possible, technically, but is it really convenient/practically possible ?
how is the typical build/shipping process for java applets, in particular considering the presence of dependencies ? At the moment I am doing "screaming for vendetta" approach: download the dependencies jars, unpacking them, compiling my own .java file with the applet, repacking everything as .jar, copying it onto the web. I am pretty sure this is not the way to go, but it worked... at least for now. Clearly, I cannot continue this way.
I know Eclipse to be a behemot. how is the chance that I can produce something that works as in my current caveman approach within a couple of days ?
anything else that you deem important
Thanks.

Is it feasible to code in java without
eclipse, maven, etc ? I am pretty sure
it is possible, technically, but is it
really convenient/practically possible
?
Absolutely, you can write code in any text editor, compile with the javac command, and execute with the java command. It's not quite convenient, and Eclipse continuously loops a the build cycle for you.
I know Eclipse to be a behemot. how is the chance that I can produce something that works as in my current caveman approach within a couple of days ?
It's possible you'll be fine, but a little time with a real IDE will start increasing your productivity almost exponentially. To start, you'd be gaining intelligent code navigation, syntax validation, real-time debugging, refactoring support, and of course code completion.

Regarding your first point... yes, it is feasible to code outside an IDE in Java. a copy of your favorite text editor, the javadoc html pages and Ant will do just fine.
That said, you will be more productive in an IDE with Java.

"Back in the day", Eclipse and Netbeans were buggy and no other IDEs were free. So, plenty of people wrote lots of Java code (including me, and including my first applet) without the use of an IDE. You just switch back and forth between your command prompt where you would run javac and your editor-of-choice where you would make changes.
Likewise, build management tools like Ant and Maven are nice for large projects with nontrivial dependencies, but you certainly don't need them to write "Hello, world!" or even a "Hello, world!" applet.
That being said, I don't see any reason not to use an IDE today. They provide plenty of nice features that others here have already mentioned, which can save you from thousands of unnecessary keystrokes and dozens of careless bugs.

Developing without Eclipse or any other IDE (maven is a different kind of beast) is entirely feasible, but not recommended if you are ignorant about the Java world and want to finish everything within a couple of days. So, I suggest that you go with Eclipse. Download the basic Java edition, which is suitable for applet development. Among other things it will allow you to run your applet in an applet viewer (without having to start a browser). This is very convenient for debugging.
About the dependencies, you could create a "fat jar", with everything in it. A plug-in can help you with this. The other solution will be to place the dependencies in a "lib" folder. Then, in your applet jar, you need to edit the manifest file to correctly set the classpath. This is usually done with an Ant target.