As Java improves, so do the development environments used to create Java applications and applets. To help you keep pace with the changes, we brought four of the leading development environments into our Real-World Labs® for a round of extensive tests.

There are many different Java development environments available, so it wasn't easy determining which ones to test. To narrow the field, we requested IDEs (integrated development environments) that include most of what is necessary for development. We wanted packages that could generate both applications and applets, as well as support for the latest JDK (Java Development Kit) and JavaBeans.

All our tests were performed on the Win32 platform. Ironically, the development environments for Java, which is supposed to deliver "write once, run anywhere" applications, do not run everywhere. Most of the packages we tested run only on Win32 (with the exception of VisualAge). And some don't guarantee that their output will run on other platforms, either.

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Java Development Environments
A Java application, compiled into class files or archived as a JAR (Java Archive Format) file, should run under any JVM (Java Virtual Machine) regardless of the underlying OS. However, using components specific to the IDE limits that possibility.

Symantec, for example, specifies that its MultiList component was not tested under Unix and recommends the use of comparable Swing components instead. Swing components, which are new to JDK 1.1, are an enhancement to the current AWT (abstract windowing toolkit) package. They offer a more uniform look and additional functionality, such as tool tips. Also noteworthy, with Microsoft's Visual J++, there is no guarantee that your generated code will not depend on Microsoft's extensions to the JVM.

After all the bits were compiled, we found that the packages fall short of the maturity that older development environments, such as C++ and Visual Basic, offer. However, the gap is narrowing rapidly, and the new tools certainly provide RAD (Rapid Application Development) in a fashion that was not possible just a few months ago.

Symantec Corp. Visual Café 2.5

Visual Café outshone the other Java development environments in our tests by paying attention to many details that make a developer's life easier. For example, to detect desirable user input on any component in your applet, you just right-click and pick "Add Interaction." A wizard then guides you as you choose the event to "listen" to, the component with which to interact and the type of interaction.

Visual Café, which won our Editor's Choice award, provides many proprietary components that run fine on Win32, but Symantec has not tested them on other platforms. For example, we had some problems running them on Hewlett-Packard Co.'s HP-UX. But if your predominant development platform is Win32, and you don't need integration with Microsoft's ActiveX, Visual Café is a solid performer that may well meet your needs.