Matt Raible

If you’re a Java developer like me, you like to crank out code and get shit done. I like many things about IntelliJ IDEA, but I thought it’d be fun to write about the ones that make me most productive.

When I first started doing Java development in the late 90s, I used HomeSite as my editor. HomeSite was an HTML editor initially developed by Nick Bradbury. I liked it because it defaulted to a view of your code rather than being WYSIWYG like Dreamweaver and FrontPage. It’s funny to look back now and laugh about how inefficient I was: I used to google for import statements, then copy/pasted them into the editor.

I started programming in Java way back in 1999. I had just started a job as the director of web development at a small startup called eDeploy.com.

Rather than focusing on my experience, I thought it’d be fun to write a post that provides people with no programming experience how to become Java developers.

Hopefully, this short and sweet list of learning resources inspires you to try Java. It’s a great language, that can do many things. Write once, run anywhere!