Java Development Environments for Students
Specific recommendations (and anti-recommendations):
Eclipse
An ex-student says that it's the best free IDE he has seen.
It's backed by major software industry leaders and very easy to use.
No complicated install and no complicated configuration.
BlueJ
Enthusiasm for it from users in an academic setting.
TextPad
A relatively simple shareware editor that can be configured to
invoke tools.
It also includes syntax highlighting and text clippings
that can be used to insert common patterns.
NetBeans
Enthusiasm from some users.
JCreator
Described as "like Kawa but free."
Very similar in look to MSVC++ so students liked it.
ReadyToProgram
It, like BlueJ, is developed specifically for teaching and students.
Ready is a more traditional environment than BlueJ.
It's about as simple as interface as you can get.
Intellij
A student thinks it is excellent and powerful.
Crimson editor
It can be used for coding in various languages.
It's not an IDE exactly, but it can be configured to kick off external
applications (such as compilers).
Has very easily customizable
syntax highlighting for many languages, and more can be added.
WinEdit
Similar to TextPad.
JBuilder 3.0/4.0
Okay; JB4 requires much of the user's machine (even 3 is a bit of a hog).
Forte
A free IDE from Sun. Somewhat complex and slow.
Kawa
Similar to JBuilder. Has not invoked much enthusiasm.
Code Warrior
Is lax with respect to package and class names so that it
cheerfully compiles programs the JDK would not.
FreeJ
Simple, but doesn't do much.
GNU Emacs with JDE
Open source and very configurable.
Visual Cafe
Obtained it free, but reported to not work that well.
Microsoft VJ++
Okay for editing, but that's it.
jGrasp
An editor that displays control structure information in the
space that is normally occupied by the indentation.
The intention is to improve the comprehension of the code.
It appears the editor also has some features to selectively
hide the bodies of control structures.