Omnicore has announced the release of X-develop 1.0 Professional, a new multi-language IDE for professional coders. X-develop Professional 1.0 supports the .NET, Mono and Java platforms as well as the C#, VB.net, Java, JavaServer Pages and J# programming languages. Productivity-boosting features such as on-the-fly error checking of all files, refactoring and smart code templates are supported for all languages and all platforms.

They also provide an API that allows you to write complete support for languages yourself. I have been told that they're considering adding a collection of JVM scripting languages for the next version.

Omnicore states that X-develop has the same support for Java that CodeGuide does, with some major enhancements. Core features of CodeGuide include:

• on-the-fly error checking in your entire project
• full Java 5.0 support with optional backwards-compatible compilation to older JVM versions
• back-in-time Java debugging
• code hyperlinking
• instant incremental compilation

It adds to the CodeGuide feature set with:

• complete version control integration for Subversion, CVS, VSS and Bitkeeper
• 'solutions' (a term borrowed from VS.net) that group projects and dependencies
• in-code visual preview of the impact of a refactoring before executing it
• smart templates
• improved search/replace
• vastly improved code formatter that can learn from the style of a source file

X-develop is $299USD for a single license.

Too many IDEs with its own learning curves associated with it. I think Eclipse is a good direction (but again there are many plugins for the same thing :)
[[I have used JDeveloper 9.0.3 for the past 3 years and don't wanna change to another (hope I retire with it soon:)]]

The multi-language feature you said is good but with Eclipse you can do the same for free.

I don't even feel curiosity to check it out, but I guess it must be REALLY REALLY REALLY great... I mean, a new non-free IDE just has to be a dream IDE in order to earn marketshare over a free mature IDE like Eclipse.
I'd like to hear from features beyond those already offered by Eclipse or other commercial IDEs.

# smart templates
# improved search/replace

means nothing to me.

Cheers and happy coding,
Martin

I don't even feel curiosity to check it out, but I guess it must be REALLY REALLY REALLY great... I mean, a new non-free IDE just has to be a dream IDE in order to earn marketshare over a free mature IDE like Eclipse.

Martin, X-develop is not new, it builds on the foundation of Codeguide that has been around for years and has a great number of dedicated users, me included. I try out each new release of Eclipse and IDEA, but they always don't feel right. Even though they are totally feature-packed, there's always too much that comes between me and coding. X-develop uses very little resources and I really can't miss it's instant project-wide error analysis. I actually came to rely on it a lot. When I upgrade libraries or refactor external libs, I just open up related projects and immediately see where errors are located without compiling. I don't have to go through all of them one by one like in the other IDEs. Another thing I really appreciate is the effort that Omnicore does to make things as simple as possible, but not too simple. The interface offers a lot of screen estate for the code, which imho is a great plus.

Why don't you try it out before being so critical about it. Isn't it a good thing that small companies are still trying to develop new commercial products even though IBM has virtually tried to wipe out all competition in the IDE market when they released Eclipse. Isn't choice good? Not everyone likes Eclipse, I certainly don't. Do you really want one and only one option that everybody should adapt to?

Do you really want one and only one option that everybody should adapt to?

No, that's not what I said. I think that the result of an extreme proliferation of products will never be that a lot of excelent products, each one of them considering different user profiles or preferences. More likely, most of them will be average. If we had less products, we could focus on making them great.
In this context, a commercial product should be considerable better that a free alternative in order to justify the investment. If X-develop is an Eclipse clone (which I'm not saying it is), then what's the benefit?
Thus, IMO having a cool search engine is not cool enough. Having multi-language support out of the box instead of having to download a few plugins, is also not cool enough. Is the functional gap between Eclipse and X-Develop worth the license cost? No, not to me. Does it top Eclipse or JDeveloper? Tough competitors to beat, even more if you're not free.
But it's a free world, so they are free to offer their product and I'm free to say I don't think it'll succeed.

Cheers and happy coding,
Martin

Martin, 'topping' another product isn't the only possible comparison, doing things differently and offering other IDE features can go a long way if you target a collection of people that are interested in the approach. You can't possible absolutely compare products and say 'this one is better than that one for everything'.

Codeguide and now X-develop fits my style of working better and as someone said before in this thread: "they're lean mean coding machines". For me, it 'tops' Eclipse.

Good for you, but you are not the market.
Using your own criteria, I claim that different isn't better per-se. Being different than everybody just makes you different, might make you proud that you are not a clone, but does not make you better. I'm sorry if you don't, but I try to use the best product. In my x-is-better-than-y ecuation, price is an important factor.
So, again, I say that XDevelop should be REALLY REALLY REALLY good, being a commercial product competing with mature free alternatives.

Cheers and happy codign,
Martin

Martin, some quick responses:
* I never said I was the market, nor better than the rest
* better and best is not an absolute criteria
* I'm not alone, there are plenty of codeguide users
* there is not *one* market
* if $300 is a problem for you when commercially developing Java applications, then I strongly suggest that you start looking for some other income

Best regards,

Geert

if $300 is a problem for you when commercially developing Java applications

Quick responses to your quick responses (since you feel personally injured by someone applying a different criteria for evaluation software)
* You never said you were the market, but it's implied from the tone of your speech that you feel like the ultimate hacker. Perhaps you code in vi from time to time, 'cause all those colors in cool-looking IDEs are for losers.
* Of course not, if you feel confortable not progressing.
* 6 billions on the planet. There were plenty of Nazis, too, but that didn't mean they were rigth.
* Of course not; there's the fruit market and the wine market, as well. But if I have to specify everything I say with dictionary precision, this thread will never see an end.
* Actually, it's not a problem, since my employer pays for all licenses. Still, it makes no sense to pay for something that is definately NOT better than its free counterpart.

So you go on using that piece of crap and believing you are the most cool, self respecting, proud hacker in the planet, just beacuse you like to waste $300. In the meantime, I'm gonna use those $300 to buy 400 lts of beer and get wasted over the next 2 years' weekends, taking advantage of the days I save from using Eclipse instead of X-Develop.

As a footnote, I got personal because I don't much care for the insulting tone of your comments. Sorry for poluting TSS with this...

(since you feel personally injured by someone applying a different criteria for evaluation software)

Damn spelling

There is no such thing as free beer, but in your case it seems you stole your employers licensing budget and plan to spend it on beer?

I don't even feel curiosity to check it out, but I guess it must be REALLY REALLY REALLY great... I mean, a new non-free IDE just has to be a dream IDE in order to earn marketshare over a free mature IDE like Eclipse.

I understand exactly where you are coming from. As a longtime eclipse user, I decided to check out Codeguide (percursor to Xdevelop) last year, more out of curiosity, JDK5 support and unhappiness at the sluggishness of eclipse on large projects. My line of thinking was really the same as yours above. To my mind, how could an IDE from a small company compete with these massive efforts? To my great surprise, I found codeguide to be a better overall IDE, the only thing missing was proper CVS support.

Xdevelop fills a fairly sweet niche that IntelliJ and Eclipse have moved away from --> a code-centric IDE that is fast to code in, with relatively few bells and whistles. It doesn't try to be all things to all people. The thing that amazed me was how snappy it was, and how clever the error checking was.

I'm not saying that I'm necessarily going to buy it, I'm just saying that it really is quite impressive and worth a look. Think of it as a lean mean coding machine...

Cheers,
Andrew
p.s. I have no commercial or professional affiliation with Omnicore

Xdevelop fills a fairly sweet niche that IntelliJ and Eclipse have moved away from --> a code-centric IDE that is fast to code in, with relatively few bells and whistles. It doesn't try to be all things to all people. The thing that amazed me was how snappy it was, and how clever the error checking was.I'm not saying that I'm necessarily going to buy it, I'm just saying that it really is quite impressive and worth a look. Think of it as a lean mean coding machine...

Right on ... very well put!

PS.: I have no commercial or personal affiliation either ;-)

I don't even feel curiosity to check it out, but I guess it must be REALLY REALLY REALLY great... I mean, a new non-free IDE just has to be a dream IDE in order to earn marketshare over a free mature IDE like Eclipse.

I understand exactly where you are coming from. As a longtime eclipse user, I decided to check out Codeguide (percursor to Xdevelop) last year, more out of curiosity, JDK5 support and unhappiness at the sluggishness of eclipse on large projects. My line of thinking was really the same as yours above. To my mind, how could an IDE from a small company compete with these massive efforts? To my great surprise, I found codeguide to be a better overall IDE, the only thing missing was proper CVS support.Xdevelop fills a fairly sweet niche that IntelliJ and Eclipse have moved away from --> a code-centric IDE that is fast to code in, with relatively few bells and whistles. It doesn't try to be all things to all people. The thing that amazed me was how snappy it was, and how clever the error checking was.I'm not saying that I'm necessarily going to buy it, I'm just saying that it really is quite impressive and worth a look. Think of it as a lean mean coding machine...Cheers,Andrewp.s. I have no commercial or professional affiliation with Omnicore

Well, I think that Idea is right in that sweet spot. What impressed is how Idea conforms to how I work and the things I don't use are not in the way. For example, I don't need the GUI support and I never see it.

And I paid for it...happily. We use it at my company, but I purchased my own copy when the personal license offer came up. Well worth it!

Actually it seems like they do a fine job creating a strong multi-language IDE. However, i think they will face this problems:
- Managing a multi language, multi technology - multi platform systems is a big challenge. Release cycle will be slow and painfull. this will make them an easy target for focused-products.
- .Net=Vs.net approach is very strong. No matter how bad is VS.Net people will keep using it. penetrating that market is not easy at all.
- This is good news for mono, but this time you will face with the "cheap" developer problem. People will refuse to use their product because it is commercial. And mono is kind of a Gnome only area, also i dont think if it is easy to keep up with their inconsistencies.
- For java, this time they will face with "too many IDE" problem. CodeGuide was a fine IDE but it couldnt keep up with Eclipse and IDEA for Java (Actually Eclipse is more to blame). i am not sure what more it provides against them now.. Since product is a multi-language one, making java improvements will be slower than even before.
Well, i am sure the people there made those risk calculations before releasing this product. But still, this is a shark tank. So, i say good luck.

For java, this time they will face with "too many IDE" problem. CodeGuide was a fine IDE but it couldnt keep up with Eclipse and IDEA for Java (Actually Eclipse is more to blame). i am not sure what more it provides against them now..

Honestly, I feel crippled when using Eclipse and IDEA. Codeguide and X-develop shouldn't be evaluate by checking of a feature list, I don't use most of them anyway. When it comes down to coding and doing so comfortably I really prefer how Omnicore structures their applications. The features like instant project-wide error checking and back-in time debugging add to that.

Since product is a multi-language one, making java improvements will be slower than even before.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. If someone knows the Java language internals, it's Omnicore. They delivered 5.0 support years before any other IDE and to date, Eclipse is not even fully generic compliant yet (even though they announced it, we still have some sources that cause trouble). I'm pretty sure they continue to update the things where they really excel: language introspection and integration into the IDE. They have never been afraid to take risks and offer the latest and the greatest features when all the competitors were only starting to get forum messages posted about possible support on their forums.

Something I also want to add is that Omnicore really delivers outstanding support. Very often when I discover bugs, they take the trouble of looking into it in the coming day, and on more than one occasion I had a custom compiled version of Codeguide in my mailbox shortly after that. I know of no other company that reacts as passionate about their product and tries to get it as good as possible to make their customers happy, even though they have limited resources as a small company.

It seems to have some good features. But I looked at the comparison page and thought, why isn't this just a plugin into Eclipse/Netbeans/... . It could be a VS.Net plugin but then it wouldn't be cross-platform.

Kind of funny that they ding Eclipse for things needing to be a third party plugin. If so, in reality the only thing that could be checked yes is Eclipse supporting Windows and Linux (hmm Mac is missing - wonder why? :) ) because everything is a plugin - even Java support.

Does it have visual editors for the various GUIs (Swing, AWT, JSP, HTML, Windows Forms, Web Forms)? Or is it like Eclipse and brings up Notepad when you click on a JSP?

I've used both CodeGuide for a long time and X-Develop for the shorter time it's been out. I'd say mostly I'm torn. I like X-Develop, I think it improves on CG, but I also think it is a major step in the wrong direction.

X-Develop is littered with references to .NET that wouldn't make sense in Java. Even in a Java project. Missing JARs are referred to as "assemblies", "organize imports" used to be "organize usings" (this has since changed), and so on. I think the combination of all the different languages is straying from what made CG so good. Fast, simple Java dev.

I would have much rather seen CG go for a while longer and X-Develop to be the next iteration of CG. CG is a light, fast IDE that doesn't do a whole lot but allow you to code. It stays out of the way.

I would kill to see someone create an Eclipse light that removes a ton of stuff. Or to create a version that allows you to turn things off and not have them loaded. At the moment I switch between Eclipse, IDEA, and CG. Sticking mostly to Eclipse and using CG when the mood strikes me.

Hopefully Omnicore will come to their senses and move C# et. al. support out into an optional jar and give us the light, fast, simple and rock-solid IDE that we all crave.

I want to comment on the perception that Java support has somehow taken a backseat when we introduced support for other languages with X-develop. This is not the case.

Language support in X-develop is plugin-based. You can already look into the plugins directory and remove all JAR files related to .net and X-develop will continue to work flawlessly as a pure Java IDE. You do not need to do this though since the plugins do not even get loaded if you do not use them.

I like X-Develop, I think it improves on CG, but I also think it is a major step in the wrong direction. X-Develop is littered with references to .NET that wouldn't make sense in Java. Even in a Java project. Missing JARs are referred to as "assemblies", "organize imports" used to be "organize usings" (this has since changed), and so on.

I agree, we need to improve the names of a few menu entries or error messages and probably adapt them based on the programming language of the currently edited file. However that something like "Organize usings/imports" works with every supported language shows a major strength of X-develop. Refactorings and other features are implemented on top of a Common language core. That means that they mostly only need to be implemented once but are available for all languages.

What does that buy you? I understand that you do not like / do not care about .NET, that is OK. But that way we can also easily implement support for Java-based languages like Jython or Groovy. And every general refactoring/feature/coding tool we implement becomes available for all supported languages.

I want to comment on the perception that Java support has somehow taken a backseat when we introduced support for other languages with X-develop. This is not the case.Language support in X-develop is plugin-based. You can already look into the plugins directory and remove all JAR files related to .net and X-develop will continue to work flawlessly as a pure Java IDE. You do not need to do this though since the plugins do not even get loaded if you do not use them.

That's fine and I understand that you still want to support your Java users, but when users start reading .NET things in a Java IDE, they start to feel like their language isn't the focus anymore and that the Java part of X-Develop was just ripped from CG and unchanged. So why should I upgrade and pay for the extra "features" if it's just the same as CG? Note that this may not actually represent my views. I'm just being a bit advocate for the other side.

I agree, we need to improve the names of a few menu entries or error messages and probably adapt them based on the programming language of the currently edited file.

But your product just went 1.0. Doesn't that mean that it should be as error-free as was possible at the time of release? I realize there can be known bugs and things that don't work correctly, but changing a message based on the current language doesn't seem like it's a feature that would cause a project to slip a ship-date.

However that something like "Organize usings/imports" works with every supported language shows a major strength of X-develop. Refactorings and other features are implemented on top of a Common language core. That means that they mostly only need to be implemented once but are available for all languages. What does that buy you? I understand that you do not like / do not care about .NET, that is OK. But that way we can also easily implement support for Java-based languages like Jython or Groovy. And every general refactoring/feature/coding tool we implement becomes available for all supported languages.

This is wonderful! CG users have been begging for a plugin system for years. Hopefully it'll be easy to work with.

I am also a long time fan of Codeguide, I've been using it for almost 4 years. I have considered moving to Idea or something else like Netbeans or Eclipse. But I kept using codeguide because the others were not fast enough and because they all miss this very usefull feature codeguide has: instant error checking in your entire project. This is what keeps me using it right now. I have to admit that I am missing a features others IDEs have: code completion for taglibs, showing missing/wrong method params in javadocs.
As other people also said, I wouldn't like Codeguide/X-Develop to become cluttered with useless functionalities like GUI editor and etc.
I haven't tried X-Develop yet, but as long as it continues what Codeguide has for java projects, I think it will be ok for me.