IDEs can be nice cause of the added features and integration with other tools, but at same time it makes them bloated with stuff only a fraction of it gets used.

I just dl-ed a new JDK and saw there was one with a bundled netbeans. So I thought I'll give it _another_ try, as I didn't remember why I didn't like it.

I does have some nice features like VCS intergration, running ant tasks with a click, little icons with tooltips for where to improve your Java-code, helper tools for refactoring and so on.

I really wanted to give it a chance, but even just clicking something can take seconds. Having some project open lets it start to repeatedly index all files (feels like the whole HDD) and even sometimes spin up the DVD drive (maybe just in case the data is needed later for those hints or some other purpose), while using excessive amounts of CPU-time. But menu items only get loaded on demand and some just dont show the first time you have that submenu open. Later it completely hangs sometimes.

That IDE is _unusably slow_ and even uninstalling half of the ~40 preinstalled addons and deactivating some options that I read would supposedly slow it down did not help.

I was thinking of trying another Java-IDE, but have my doubts there is any that provides such features and is not slow.

another Java-IDE

IntelliJ is better, but slower.

Also what is your alternative? Writing java by hand? If there is a language that is not meant to be written by hand it's Java. The verbosity of java requires an IDE .

How would you import a class from: com.netflix.astyanax.serializers.BigIntegerSerializer?

How would you move an interface between packages? ( no recursive #includes in java )

How would you change your javadocs when you change a variable?

How would you flesh out an interface?

How would you break on uncaught ecxeptions?

Programming Java manually will end in one of those: "Java is a complicated language that's too verbose" rant. The whole point of Java is that it is so verbose that it is easy for a machine to figure out what's what and allow amazing re-factoring (as opposed to C++ where everything can be changed with the all-mighty pre-processor step). No one should be expected to write java by hand.

Granted, Java IDEs require a strong (and expensive) development machine, but unless you are doing some trivial college homework, you should not use Java without a proper IDE. Heck programming in C++ will be easier, more productive , less bug-prone, and result in cleaner code.

I was thinking of trying another Java-IDE, but have my doubts there is any that provides such features and is not slow.

Netbeans? Slow? I've found it quite fast actually. I was impressed since my experience with Eclipse prepackaged versions tends to go horribly wrong (tons of additional features that go unused and bog down the entire IDE), whereas the default Netbeans install worked really well even with all the additional features of the regular package. It felt just as fast my trimmed Eclipse install (70Mb Eclipse runtime + JDT).The "Dark Metal" theme is quite pretty. I've just had issues with things I instinctively try to do, coming from Eclipse, but aren't as nice to do in Netbeans. Say, excluding files from build, linking native libraries, etc.

I've found that Netbeans has very nice refactoring tools, and good static analysis by default, nevermind the actual (good) support of newer Java features, whereas Eclipse tends to lag behind on that. I found pretty weird it has so small share since it looks quite polished. It took 4 releases for Eclipse to get CSS-SWT to work right and allow nice dark themes without random un-skinned controls popping out like a thorn.

Having some project open lets it start to repeatedly index all files (feels like the whole HDD) and even sometimes spin up the DVD drive

That's weird, I have regular HDDs and I've not had such issues

Granted, Java IDEs require a strong (and expensive) development machine,

Nah, if you have a modern dual core anything (say, Core i3) or better, you're pretty much there. If you can run Visual Studio comfortably, you can run Eclipse, Netbeans or IntelliJ IDEA.

Having said that, its pretty slow if you run in single core computers or old dual cores like Pentium Ds or first gen Athlon X2.

I did try IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition next, even without reading about it here, and it did run faster and it felt like delays happened on more logical places, not randomly.

That said, I did go back to netbeans, deinstalled many more of those addons I did not need (and added a Xmx setting to some hidden config file as I got the feeling it wanted to use only a fraction of available memory and then garbage collect too often). Guess it was some addons slowing it down, now it runs ok-ish (faster than IntelliJ) unless it starts reindexing a larger project the moment I let it start compiling.

It somehow reinforced my feeling that Java programs run noticeably slower compared to C++, which made me rant about it.

I should try to decide soon which new computer I buy, but there is so many...

It somehow reinforced my feeling that Java programs run noticeably slower compared to C++, which made me rant about it.

I doubt any big IDE is done in pure C++ (or any compiled language for that matter) anymore...

I doubt any big IDE is done in pure C++ (or any compiled language for that matter) anymore...

I wouldn't be so sure about that.

XCode is pretty much entirely written in Objective-C, which is very much a "compiled" language, and QTCreator is written in C++...

Another gripe with netbeans is everytime I open it with the project it thinks it needs to tell me about an uncountable number of incompatibilities with Java 1.5. Then I need to rightclick on the project name and choose Java 1.7, but it never remembers this setting. Any idea?

Thing that I've not liked about IDEs would be how cluttered they are. I kinda want stuff out of the way, and the things I am more likely to need, readily accessible. I am not too spoiled by having an IDE fill in code for me, yet.

For beginners (working on intermediate) such IDEs like XCODE and a eclipse can be a bit much.

I haven't learned Java, but currently I am using python, javascript, and lua. Planning on getting into C++ now that I have realized that its syntax is not as complicated as I thought.

Okay, new discovery, while wondering about this idea of creating desktop applications using web technologies, I came across a mention of Brakets once more.

There is something called Brackets Shell, which allows you to use the framework used to make Brackets itself, to make your own desktop applications.

http://clintberry.com/2013/html5-desktop-apps-with-brackets-shell/

XCode is pretty much entirely written in Objective-C, which is very much a "compiled" language, and QTCreator is written in C++...

Ah cool, and I'm assuming they don't offer any kind of scripting environment or something to build extensions for them? (maybe core environment is C++ but everything built on top of it is Javascript or something for example).

Then I need to rightclick on the project name and choose Java 1.7, but it never remembers this setting. Any idea?

No idea, when I set the target runtime it sticks to whatever I set it to. IIRC, target runtime is stored in the Ant build script or some config file there, you might want to check that out. Are you sure your install isn't bugged somehow? I used Netbeans 8, SE release, although I'm on Debian, not Windows/OSX.