IDEA support for Java vs. other languages
One of the things that has been disturbing me for some time now about IDEA has been the apparent focus on other languages at the expense of new features in IDEA's Java support.
At least, that's the way it seems from my perspective.
So I was excited to see the new code-completion feature, and thought I would vote for one of the feature requests related to it because it sounded like a good idea.
In the process, I ended up reading comments from JetBrains representatives such as the following:
"So, do you suggest different behaviors for different languages? I'd say that will prevent a user from establishing any kinds of automaticity, and thus is not acceptable"
"Too bad. I understand your problem, in fact, in Java I have the same one. But I see no solution to it right now. Having a setting or different behavior in different languages seems unacceptable to me for the reasons I already explained"
Note that it is not my intention here to call out this person individually or talk about the feature itself - I am asking here about JetBrains' philosophy in general to this kind of situation.
It was disappointing to me before when I felt like Java support was stagnating because so much effort was being spent on other languages.
But to see JetBrains actively arguing against cool/useful features for Java because it would be too hard to do for other languages? Or just because it would make the experience different between the two languages?
Is that the future of IDEA? Do we only get new Java features if they can be implemented easily in or are consistent with whatever new language is popular this month?
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You're swimming upstream. The movement in the Java eco-system is toward multi-languages - Groovy, JRuby, Scala, etc. JetBrains has recognized that and is getting ahead of it. I'm already seeing consultants with a higher level of competency in Groovy then raw Java.
Supporting additional languages also provides side-benefits. The language injection improvements come directly from that. So do many of the UI improvements since the Ruby on Rails guys have a much lower tolerance for ugly and complicated then do Java guys.
I agree with you that it would be nice to see purely Java improvements in IntelliJ but my biggest pain point - by far - in IntelliJ right now is general UI and stability issues. The interface for many features seems extremely complex and haphazard. That's where I, personally, would like to see them focus.
While the different languages popping up might indicate that, I doubt that
for serious development for the JVM in companies the alternative languages
you've mentioned sum up to more than 10%. Or do you have a authorized source
for your statement? Maybe Jetbrains can provide some proven numbers?
BTW, my biggest complain with IntelliJ IDEA was in the last years, that each
new major release broke previously existing features and became quite stable
with x.y.2 or x.y.3 bug fix release. Hence I still stick with 8.0.4 and may
jump to 9.0.* in the near future.
Tom
Not necessarily this one in particular, but maybe something like this can be a useful stat
http://www.odinjobs.com/Odin/marketstatcompare?id=62670&q=java+vs+groovy+vs+ruby
I too am fed up of seeing tons of Flex bug fixes in the EAP release notes whilst all my ANT and Java bugs languish untouched or get marked wont fix :(
Interesting that you are posting in an EAP forum then. Don't you just use the latest EAP? ?:|
The enterprise usually lags a little behind but I just came out of consulting and saw a groundswell in many large businesses. In my new company everyone is singing Groovy's praises. I'm not a huge fan myself, but it's definitely happening.
EDIT: oops, wrong thread - contents removed.