Thread: Eclipse or Wordpad

I am going to teach myself Java and have started by using "Eclipse". Is the any disadvantage in using this type of program as opposed to using Command Prompt and text editor such as Wordpad? By this I mean will I miss out on important skills or knowledge using an IDE.

Thanks.

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Often asked, fiercely debated, rarely decided. The two sides are:

A) Using a barebones editor requires the learner to achieve an understanding of the basic mechanics of writing, saving/structuring, compiling, running, and deploying source code using the tools found on any computer plus the Java SDK or JDK.

B) Using an IDE is an advanced skill in itself, so the student must not only learn Java but how to use the IDE. Once the IDE can be used effectively, it should speed the student's progress at learning Java by performing the basic mechanics of all that stuff listed above in the background, leaving the student to figure it out later when trying to run code outside the IDE or as needed. If IDE trained only, the student may find him/herself in a situation where an IDE is not available and not have a clue what to do to write, compile, and run even a HelloWorld app.

Another consideration is to choose the editor assumed by the learning material being used. Some tutorials, books, etc., assume the use of a general or specific IDE and would be more difficult to accomplish using a basic source code editor. Other tutorial material assumes the use of a barebones editor, so the basic mechanical stuff mentioned above is well covered and hopefully learned along the way.

Update: If you decide the barebones editor approach, I recommend one that can be configured as a source code editor, like Notepad++. Workpad is clutzy and more likely to add non-text characters to your code that can cause errors that are difficult to find and frustrating to a new programmer.

You decide.

I appreciate your comments. I am using the Java Beginners Guide 6th Ed. They give all explanations, coding and examples in bare bones format. I am following that but using Eclipse instead Notepad (which I meant to say in my original post). So I will keep doing this way but keep in mind what you have said.

All the best and thanks again.

Eclipse is an IDE, an integrated development environment. It works around projects: you load a whole project, and edit its files. It knows how to build the project, so it will compile it on each change. With Java, it can point at syntax errors as you type them, before saving. Moreover, it builds an index of the whole project: you can quickly load a class by giving its name or from a reference in the code. It can do accurate refactorings because it knows scope.