Cheap Visualage for Java Professional Edition 3.0 (Software) (Unix, Windows 95, Windows NT, Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98) Price

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Customer Reviews of Visualage for Java Professional Edition 3.0

I recommand it for all those who want to use or using J2EE .. Check it out and find how ease is to create J2EE applications.

Brilliant IDE, but requires a different development style
Visual Age (latest version is 3.5) is a very productive Java environment, but prepared to change the way you work. It's greatest strengths are: - A great debugger that lets you edit, recompile, inspect variables while you're running your program. It's hard to oversell how great this is -- but it if you are in to XP, you'll like this - A great repository that keeps versions of your methods and classes while you work so you can easily find older versions of things that worked before you 'fixed' them - A rich collection of class, package and project browsers. If you're used to a one-screen-at-a-time IDE, you'll take a while to adjust. - Good feedback on errors (once you've compiled your method)

But there's some catches that really bug people until they get used to them: - VA views development as a method-by-method process; each time you exit a method you save it - The code repository is not file-based, but is logically organized around projects, packages and classes. You'll need to export and import to see it as files. - The UI builder is fine for building widgets, but a lot of people don't like how it handles events with its bean wiring. (My advice, use the UI painter, but code the controller-specific behavior the old-fashioned way)

Finally, there are a couple of things it needs to improve: - integration with other source control is less than perfect - it doesn't support JDK 1.3 yet

Bottom line is that it's the best out there

Better than notepad.... but barely
The only real advantage to using Visual Age for Java is its support for team development. Compared to most environments, this IDE is simply behind the times....

The some of the good features are that many people can work on the same class at the same time without any problems, it gives you one function (not one class file) to work on at a time. Integrated JAVADOC and quick and easy formatting.

Some of the bad things are that the IDE does not assist the developer with things that people have come to expect, like drop down lists and the Navigation is very difficult at best!

Overall.... If you have to work in a team, this is something you might want to look into, if not, most other IDE's are better.