Originally Posted by
mwildam
Second: I do disagree using a text editor. Especially as a beginner I would misspell or simply not know by heart a lot of properties and method of the different classes and do not know exactly the class names to be imported. In the IDE I have many helpful features that remind me (e.g. IDE syntax checks) about all those things that - using notepad - I would have to read a lot the documentation and further need a lot of trial&error compile attempts.
And this is the exact reason why a beginner
should start with an IDE (one of them anyway). As a beginner, you need to learn how to use the documentation (which will solve the problems above) so that you are not dependant on asking others (including your IDE) for help everytime you have a problem.
Other reasons for starting with a simple text editor and compiling from the command line, is so that you learn what the classpath is, how to manipulate it, and how to use it intimately. So that you learn what it is that is happening when you create jarfiles. So you know how to manipulate a program when you execute (setting flags and other runtime parameters -D -X etc).
When you do not start with a texteditor and commandline you do not understand any of the above. Period. No if and or buts about it. Anybody who claims they do (without
years of experience) is
lying, period. All you are learning is the IDE you are using to "learn" with. That's all, and that
doesn't cut it.