Let's have some IDE fun

During any given day I might be in 6 different IDEs. Eclipse, IntelliJ, Android Studio, Xcode, AppCode, and Aptana. Generally I have an instance of Sublime text editor running too. I use them for the following things:

Eclipse - Java server side work (our REST services)

IntelliJ - Java one off utility work

Android Studio - Java Android mobile development

Xcode and AppCode - Objective C iOS mobile development (some Mac work too)

Aptana - JavaScript with AngularJS, bootstrap and other libs

Sublime - taking notes, small file edits including .gitignore and other system type files

At times it can drive you crazy. I use a Mac at work due to my iOS needs and depending on the IDE I might use CMD+S to save or Ctrl+S. Since I have a PC background and I switch to Ctrl+S at home in any IDE I am in when there. I screw up the keystrokes at times but generally have a feel for which IDE I am in at any given moment.

Eclipse is the old standby I have use for years. There are a ton of plugins for it to do nearly anything but you can't always get them to work as expected or even together. We just switched from SVN to GIT at work. Probably need to throw out the SVN plugins as I will not be using them and no real need for them to load up each time. Also the menu system gets a bit cluttered. Heck it might be a good time to start with a fresh Eclipse install as I also have the Android plug-ins running and I have switched to Android Studio for that work. Code completion works ok but is not spectacular. Refactoring works and has not crashed on me. The editor is fast and has a ton of features.

IntelliJ has a great Dracula dark theme built right in. I run a dark theme in Eclipse too but it does not theme everything perfectly. I handle one off programming in IntelliJ. Testing code bits, working on small stand alone utilities. I could do some of that in Eclipse too but I tend to have the server stuff open there and switching workspaces in Eclipse is slow as it is a full reload of the IDE. I could use workspaces in Eclipse and I do at times but our server stuff is rather large so I prefer to leave it sit by itself.

Android Studio is an IDE I like a lot as it is IntelliJ based. There have been some growing pains with the constant updating to the newest version of gradle but in general the IDE is superior to Eclipse. It has better code completion, a better preview window for your XML based layouts, shows the colors and icons in the gutter, makes it easier to convert string into the string table, shows the replacement string in code instead of the string ID and a bunch of other smaller bits of "thanks for doing that" areas. I would say that Eclipse is faster at building and getting the code on a device but I am willing to forgo that speed for all the other features Android Studio offers. It works well with Genymotion, the device emulator I use.

Xcode is my least favorite IDE of the bunch. I have to use it for iOS development but it is behind the times in areas like refactoring and its code completion tends to not be as helpful as other IDEs. Sure, you get a full list of what is possible but it does not move the most commonly used ones to the top of the list. It also crashes on me more than any of the other IDEs especially when it comes to refactoring. I have had it crash when refactoring a variable that only appears twice in a 20 line method. It makes you scared to use it. It was also terrible when it comes to using SVN. GIT is much better. I wish it would offer to automatically include needed H files instead of my manually moving to the top of the file to type them in.

AppCode is also from IntelliJ. I use it when I am doing heavy Objective C coding when I already have the UI in place. So far its refactoring has worked every time crash free. It has more intelligent code suggestions, if you add a reference to an object it will prompt to add the proper H file, it handles CocoaPods nicely. There are so so many areas where it is coder friendly. Sadly it does not have an Interface Builder replacement so you end up back over in Xcode to handle those chores. They sync together without a hitch and both use the same project files making moving between them relatively painless.

Aptana has some nice code completion aspects for CSS and HTML along with a solid JSHint tie in. Since our server build does not allow JSHint errors to pass it makes it so much easier to catch them before you push to master. It is Eclipse based but focused on JavaScript which means I could end up cluttering it with plugins but so far I have kept it down to the minimum I need for JS programming. I have used this IDE flavor for the least amount of time of those listed but with my heavier involvement in JavaScript I have been very happy with it.

Sublime is my go to editor. I leave multiple tabs open with "To Do" lists for each of the projects I have going at any time. This allows me to type in quick notes so I don't forget something because people tend to drift in and out of my office with suggestions the mobile app, to share some tidbit of useful information about the server, a GIT command or something else helpful. I have a file for general work info, one for Android and one for iOS info open all the time and then I open and close other files as needed. The color coding support in Sublime for a multitude of file formats is awesome. I also use it to pretty print XML and JSON when I copy / paste server responses out of the Chrome web tools window. 

It can fry your mind to shift in and out of so many programming languages and IDEs in any given day. Of course I try to keep it to a minimum but that is not always in my control. My preference would be to stick in the world of mobile doing Android and iOS development. Right now that is on hold so I am helping out on the JavaScript team. Lots of time on Stack Overflow and doing web searches as my brain does not have a solid cache of JavaScript programming idioms and patterns. Looks like Aptana it is for the next few months.

Eclipse dependency not found in workspace fix

I was getting the old dependency not found in workspace error in Eclipse. The other Android developer was not having this issue. We have multi-project workspace set up using Maven and POM.XML files. We had tweaked so many things and done a boatload of rebuilds and reboots of Eclipse with no luck. This error was staring us in the face.

dependency=[com.{problem class here}] not found in workspace

Finally I just selected the errors, right clicked the mouse and selected Delete. The errors went away. Full rebuild and they were still gone. Restart of Eclipse and yep, not there.

At some point in the process those errors got STUCK on and would not go away even though we had fixed the root of the issue. Seems stupid to Delete error messages but in the case it solved our problem.

I hate McAfee

I absolutely hate McAfee antivirus. It sucks your CPU dry. This is the second company that I have worked at that uses this pile of crap. It makes my machine nearly unusable. I have used other anti-virus software that does not cause this issue.

McAfee insists on looking at every JAR file. Since they really are ZIP files it wants to open and unzip and look all the damn time. It is killing me. We had the tech team set up some exemptions and that worked for a bit but I have a feeling they got wiped out and I am back to not being able to write code. Anything using JAR files is super slow. I can't get any work done this morning so I decided to bitch on my blog instead.

I don't get viruses. I don't download stupid crap. I don't fall for scams on the internet. I just want to code but today I can't do that due to a piece of crap software that as NEVER during my time using it ever caught anything on any computer that I use EVER. I have put up with this crap for year and I hate it, hate it, hate it.

There has to be a better way for it to ignore stuff it has looked at 50 times already in a single day. Come on people, your software sucks and it is ruining my productivity. It has never helped me in the 6+ years I have been tortured by your crap.

New machine built - data xfer time

I built a new machine as an early Christmas present for both my son and I over the past couple of days. My son helped me build it which was a cool experience for him. He is getting my current machine as a nice upgrade. His older AMD machine has been having all sorts of issues from not wanting to boot to booting but then not seeing the NIC or having the sound be bad. It could be a flaky power supply but I was due an upgrade anyway. Since I program for a living a 5 year old machine running a 32bit OS was starting to show its age.

It was a fun experience for him. I have a feeling we are not very far off from never building again so he may never use these skills. I looked for a pre-built box just to avoid the potential build headaches but could not find anything set up the way I wanted for a good price. If the price was good it was some crappy brand. If the parts were good it was $350-$500 more than the parts. I also drive a manual transmission. Cars and computers are like my coding - closer to the bare metal that many like to go. I write custom controls and never shy away from writing gut level code.

Here is the configuration

Intel Core i5 2500K
Thermaltake TR2 RX 750W Modular Power Supply
Samsung 22X DVD‘RW Burner with Dual Layer Support
Gigabyte GA-Z68XP-UD3 LGA 1155 Z68 ATX Intel Motherboard
Sentey Extreme Division Optimus GS-6000R Mid Tower
OCZ Technology Vertex 3 Series VTX3-25SAT3-120G
Zotac ZT-50303-10M GTX 560 Ti Overclocked 1024MB
ASUS Xonar DG 5.1 PCI Sound Card
Corsair 8GB DDR3-1600 (PC3-12800)

I went i5 instead of i7 after seeing in various websites that the i5 is a better gaming CPU due the hyperthreading getting in the way on the i7. I am not one of those "must have the top of everything" guys. I want a system that is stable and comes at a reasonable price. This is also why I did not get the $600 video card or the $1,200 dual video card set up. I bought all of it at the local MicroCenter. I normally order off NewEgg but they had a very limited processor selection and the price was higher than just picking it up local. NewEgg were cheaper on the sound card and DVD player but only by a few bucks. I just wanted to get it all at the same time ready to build.

I did go with a sound card even though the MB has built in sound. I have never been super impressed with motherboard sound and research shows the ASUS $30 to be a nice upgrade for a really good price. It is the 5.1 card, not 7.1, but I have a 5.1 setup I am happy with so it was the proper fit.

The SSD was a bit of a splurge. I have SSD at work and it is so nice to boot quickly and move right along after that. I am also moving over a normal HD to this setup to store music, images, etc. The case has a ton of fans but they are all pretty large and spinning slowly making the setup very quiet. The sound of a HD spinning is so familiar this just seems like it is not working at all. Guess I will even hear more of my game sounds when I get the chance to play.

Once it burns in for a few days I will fill out all the rebate paperwork and get that sent off. I hate rebates but I do have $100 coming back to me so it will be worth filling it out. I also need to download Assassin's Creed Brotherhood which I got for free with the video card.

I installed Win7 Ultimate 64bit and the Windows Experience comes to 7.5 with 7.8 being the highest and everything pretty much in that zone. Install was quick from DVD to SSD and boot time is faster than any machine I have ever used.

The build had two difficult areas. One was getting the stinking CPU cooling fan to seat properly. Seems I could get 3 corners in and have one pop out. The second was getting it to boot. Initially fans would kick on, single beep from post and then no video. I tried all sorts of things and gave up for the night thus making this a two day build. Finally used a screwdriver to short the CMOS jumper and then it booted. Not sure what in CMOS / BIOS was so annoyed it needed a reset especially since this is a brand new board and setup but that worked.

I turned off on-board sound in BIOS then watched the CPU health for a bit. CPU temp kept climbing so I shut it down and reseated the CPU fan again. Fired it up and CPU stayed at 45C for 20 minutes so I was happy and did the OS install.

I copied various files over from my server, installed updated video, sound and MB drivers along with Java and Eclipse. I still have a ton of other work to do to get it all in shape. I need to pull the HD out of my son's original machine and put it in my old machine so he can copy over files as he needs them. He will get to reinstall some of his games too. I did a backup of my Steam games and will move that over.

The new MB does not have IDE on it and I was planning on moving my secondary IDE drive into this machine. Guess I need a IDE / SATA adapter to do that. Right now all HD prices are up due to flooding so I hate to buy a SATA drive when I have usable drives to store music and what not. They might not be super new, fast and shiny but they spin up and hold data. I have access to what I need on our shared server drive so it is not a critical item but I hate to get in and out of the case too many times. I need to go in again to route power supply cables in a cleaner manner at the very least.

Going to be a number of days / weeks before I figure out everything I am missing. Always some utility you use rarely but need from time to time. Since my old machine is just going to my son and we are not reformatting it I will be able to move across anything I need with ease. That machine has dual HD right now so I will copy over everything I can think of from one drive to the other and put that drive in my new machine then put his old drive in there as his D: drive so he has access to his stuff.

Now I am ready to play some new games to see how this thing really works. I have Gears of War that I got for $20 a long time back. It always stuttered on the old box so I could never get into playing it. Now it should run just fine. Might be the first thing I install to prove this new beast was worth it.

Means I wont have much to open under the tree this year but really the holidays are all about watching other people open stuff you bought them. Shame I did not have the new setup over Thanksgiving when I got a second copy of Portal 2 during the Steam sale. My son and I played the co-op all day long finishing all levels. Near the end his machine would not show where the white goo was on the level so he could not place portals. My machine did things just fine. Could be a reboot of his machine would have kicked it in, could be his flaky machine would have never worked or his video card was just too old or memory shy to every handle it. He is so ready to play single player Portal 2 on a "real" machine that getting him to do homework is going to be rough. When daddy gets a new machine everyone wins.

* UPDATE *
Did a ton of data transfer last night. I now have my backed up Steam games installed (overnight process) and am downloading my free copy of Assassin's Creed Brotherhood today as it refused to accept $0.00 payment last night but did allow it this morning following exact same steps.

I have my son's old IDE drive in his new / my old machine and I copied over all his documents to the C: drive. As he reinstalls games we will move over the save game data from that drive and eventually we will remove it from the system as it is a waste of power to spin it up. I set up a new account for him and left my account so I can copy up to the network if I would happen to need something I forgot over there.

There were two IDE DVD drives in the case but only one is set to run right now as I stole the other IDE channel for the old HD. He is running without a burner at this point but with a slot load reader. Lets him install games but I need to get the burner back in place so he can burn videos and other school projects in the future. Of course we can burn them from the server, my wife's laptop, my machine or my other son's laptop meaning it is a hassle but not a big deal.

I installed Gears of War. It would not run saying I had a modified EXE. I installed the patch and it ran but it will not let me leave the video set up screen. I assume it is a Win7 64bit issue but gave up and went to bed instead of trying over and over. I will try a Steam game tonight but the ones I have use the old source engine so I doubt they show off the graphics card. I need to break down and by Skyrim but I really want it to go on sale. I have never paid $60 for a game and hate to start now.

ADT 14 breaks Eclipse 3.7 - FIXED

Just to make sure my week goes as smoothly as possible I installed ADT 14 / SDK 14 for the new Android 4.0 build and now I can't build anything on my Win7 64bit box.

First I installed the new SDK. Then I installed the new ADT after I got some errors. Now I just get an error that my project has errors but not a single window will tell me what the error happens to be. I installed the SDK from scratch and still have the same error. I installed a fresh version of  Eclipse 3.7, ADT 14 and SVN plug-ins and still have the same issue. I have run every update possible. Our bandwidth sucks right now so this is taking a really long time and I am getting really tired of experimenting. I will have to give this a try at home to see what happens there tonight.

I did cleans before I did builds and did the Android -> Fix Project menu item but nothing will get me past the error message that I have a project error but nothing will tell me what the error is. Not a single file, other than the main project, is marked as in error. I see others are having the same issue on the web. I looked in the project properties and nothing is showing up as in error there either.

At this point I am running Eclipse on my Mac as it has not been updated to 14. No idea what to do next. I just got out of the iTunes / Xcode / iOS 5.0 install hell. At least that is all working. Now I get to be really annoyed at Google / Android from screwing this up. Guess I can blow away all the version 14 stuff and go back to 13 to see what happens. Seems this is all a bit rushed.

Well not the fault of Eclipse or Google on this one. My developer certificate happened to expire at the exact same time I installed the update. Once I deleted the old certificate off my HD an let Eclipse build a new one all was fine. Somewhere in there showing errors in the Problem tab had gotten turned off - it was only showing warnings thus it looked like nothing was wrong. What a huge waste of time and energy it took to figure all of this out. I wish the error message would show your the current error list instead of just saying "there is an error, good luck finding it!"