Java Development on Mac OS X

1

Scenario

To develop an open source, graphical database front-end for Mac OS X using Java

2

Main Soft Goal

To select a powerful, easy to use and to learn, free IDE tool to improve our productivity

3

Minimal Requirements

‣ Support the Java 2 SE platform

‣ Run on Mac OS X Tiger

‣ Run on Intel-based Macs

‣ English user interface and documentation

‣ Free and generally available

4

Evaluation Criteria

• Interface Builder

• Version Control

• Debugging

• Unit Testing

• Documentation

• Code Formatting

• Code Completion

• Code Generation

• Code Refactoring

• Package Mgt.

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BorlandTurbo Pascal

&

MicrosoftQuickBASIC

6

Eclipse

&

Xcode

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Eclipse

“An open source, platform-independent, development platform comprised of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across its entire lifecycle.”

Much more than a Java IDE

8

Xcode

“All the tools you need to create, debug, and optimize your application: a graphical workbench with integrated syntax-highlighting text editor, a debugger, and the powerful GCC compiler.”

The ease of Mac OS,the power of UNIX

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Side-by-Side

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Eclipse Xcode

Developer Community Apple, Inc.

License Open Proprietary

Price Free (as in Speech) Free (as in Beer)

Platforms Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris, Windows... Mac OS X

Main Language Java Objective-C

Other Supported Languages

C, C++, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby...

Java, C, C++, AppleScript

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Eclipse Xcode

Fulfill Minimal Requirements ✔ Yes ✔ Yes

Interface Builder ✔ Yes * ✔ Yes

Version Control CVS, SVN * CVS, SVN, Perforce

Debugger ✔ Yes ✔ Yes

Unit Testing ✔ Yes ✔ Yes

Eats Its OwnDog Food ✔ Yes ✔ Yes

* via plug-in

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The GoodThe BadThe Ugly

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Sample Simple Interface

Eclipse: Visual EditorXcode: Interface Builder

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Code Folding

15

Split View

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Code FormattingProfiles

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Method Navigator

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Warnings & Errors

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The Bad

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Platform-independence

Write once

Debug everywhere

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The Ugly

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Spell Checking

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Conclusionsand

Recommendation

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No single tool is perfect

The other offers better support for the language

One is more integrated with the operating system

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Which one is most powerful, easy to use and to learn?

Which one would improveour productivity the most?

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?

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Eclipse is a better tool for doing Java programming in general

It really eclipses Xcode

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But...

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Xcode Interface Builder is much better than Eclipse Visual Editor

(way better...)

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So...

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Use Xcode Interface Builder to sketch the user interface

Our recommendation:

Do all other development tasks using Eclipse

32

ReferencesJava

http://java.sun.comhttp://developer.apple.com/java

Mac OS Xhttp://www.apple.com/macosxhttp://developer.apple.com/macosx

Xcodehttp://www.apple.com/macosx/features/xcodehttp://developer.apple.com/tools/xcode

Eclipsehttp://www.eclipse.orghttp://developer.apple.com/tools/eclipse.html

Borland Turbo Pascal http://dn.codegear.com/museum

Microsoft QuickBASIC http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q39730

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Questions

34

Thank you

for not having questions

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