Why My First IDE Is Still My First Choice

Your maximum time spent on any IDE makes you overpower in your coding. Something like this doesn't let me think about choosing any other IDE over NetBeans for Java development.

I have been developing Java Web Applications for 6 years and using NetBeans as IDE from the very first day. The main reason for choosing NetBeans over Eclipse (Most used IDE for Java Development back in 2014) is due to the client's requirement :D. 

How I Started With Netbeans / Tips: How You Should Start With Any IDE

I am sharing my experience regarding using any IDE from the very start. As I mentioned I started with NetBeans IDE due to the client's requirement, I had no choice at that time to chose any other IDE but, I don't regret it as of now. So, firstly if you don't have any restrictions like I had, chose the IDE of your choice(If you have any :P) or google it for the best IDEs for your preferrable stacks.

Once you decide on the IDE, from the very first day think about minimizing your usage of the mouse. In short, use as many shortcuts as you can with your keyboard. It literally saves your time and makes you available for more development. Think about copy-paste for an example (The most used feature by any developer :P). 

I am listing here some impressive shortcuts that I use during my development in NetBeans. I am keeping fonts as Bold for most used and Italic for my favorites.

1. Alt + Shift + O It helps to open any file in your open projects. That's not just it, You can event use Regex to search any file. For example, I want to search for files related to User's Module I can search like User*.java, it will list all files Starts with User and end with .java. In my case, it's User.java, UserDao.java, UserController.java, UserService.java, and UserServiceImpl.java. 
2. Ctrl + Shift + F This command lets you search through your selected workspace and more interestingly with the Regex option as well.
3. Ctrl-K Using this command you can go to the next word match. Let me explain, Suppose you want to see the usage of any variable like userModel select that userModel word and press Ctrl-K until you got satisfied 😁 
4. Alt-Insert This helps you to type less. Use this command to auto-generate code.
5. Ctrl + Shift + D This shortcut is very useful when I want to copy multiple things from one file and paste those into different files without switching between files. Basically, when you copy any line or word, it will be stored in a kind of list and you can get that list by pressing Ctrl + Shift + D altogether. Very useful for me when I create an Entity and DTOs in Java web applications. You might have used this in any Microsoft product, this feature is called Clipboard. Cool! isn't it?
6. Ctrl-E This will erase the whole line where your cursor is present. So, you don't need to move your hands to the mouse and select the whole line, Just press Ctrl + E and it will erase the current line.

Apart from the above, there are many shortcuts used for debugging and running your application you can check here.

Once you memorize the shortcuts and you became mastered in using those, it will be very difficult to move to another IDE for the same technology.

Almost all IDE have plugins to make your work easier. Whether it's GIT plugin to commit, push, or pull your changes or any other plugins.

One more feature about Netbeans I like most is they have the best history view. Honestly, I haven't checked any other IDE's history view but I call this as best because I don't have any complaint about this feature. Basically, I don't need anything more than Netbeans is providing in their History View.

You can compare between file content in the history view like, 

• You can check the Local History of a particular file
• You can compare files with different GIT commits
• You can compare files with Local and any GIT commit

Netbeans has proper code suggestions as well. Using Ctrl + Space, you can get the suggestions and on click of any suggestion from the list, you can read the JavaDocs. Which I think is required when you implementing any third party libraries.

On a closing note, I am not motivating you to chose NetBeans as your IDE for Java Development. But, I just want to motivate you guys to keep eye on the features of your IDE and make the most use out of it to improve your productivity. 

Happy Coding, Happy Learning, Happy Earning!