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A first look at Borland's JBuilder IDE

After an extended pause, Borland jumps into the Java IDE market in a big way -- find out how this tool measures up and how it compares to the Symantec IDE Visual Cafe

By Chuck Mcmanis, JavaWorld.com, 11/01/97

Page 2 of 4

JBuilder browser window.
Click on thumbnail to view full-size image.

The browser window is split vertically -- with the file tree view on the left and the viewer on the right. The vertical split is called the "curtain." Borland's user interface allows you to remove the curtain when you want a full-screen view of the source code you are working on. Under each half of the browser window are control tabs that change the semantics of the view itself.

When viewing Java source code, the tabs on the viewer-half of the browser are labeled source, design, and doc.

• The source tab simply shows you the source code, and you can edit it using the included syntax highlighting editor.
  
  
• The design tab shows a visual workspace where any user interface information you've defined exists. So, for example, if your source code had panel definitions, buttons, and so on, this panel is the drag-and-drop area where you can compose that information.
  
  
• The doc tab shows you the HTML document that is generated from the nested comments in the source code. The HTML document can be extracted using JavaDoc, however, there is no automated way that I could find to generate this document.

Perhaps one of the most clever aspects of the browser implementation is that when you browse a class file, the browser reads in the class file and decompiles it enough to show you the structure of the source code. This can be very helpful if you are used to reading source, rather than looking at an object diagram. Further, when you select any of the Java standard classes or the Borland custom classes, clicking on the doc tab will return the JavaDoc page for that class. This allows you to do things like: highlight a system class, select "browse selected symbol", and see both the reconstructed source, or the documentation for the class. I prefer this method, which preserves the HTML formatting that is embedded in the JavaDoc data, to systems that convert the Java documentation into Microsoft "help" files.

The JBuilder debugger

Of course, writing code is easy. It's getting it to work that's hard. Perhaps the most important feature for any IDE is its debugger. Fortunately, the Borland JBuilder debugger does not disappoint. A screen shot of the debugger is shown below.

When debugging, the browser window is reconfigured to support looking at your class's status. The tree structured file view is split into an upper window containing thread status and a lower window containing information about active variables. Also, the left half of the browser gains some addtional tab controls at the bottom that control the operation of the debugger.

JBuilder debugger.
Click on thumbnail to view full-size image.

Additionally, pop-up windows will display a variable's value in the source window in much the same way that Symantec's debugger works. All of the standard debugging features are present: single step, watch points, break points, conditional break points, and so on. Of note is the thread support, which is outstanding. In the thread window in the upper-left corner, you can click on the currently-executing line of any piece of code in any thread, and the source window will pop to that place in the code. Furthermore, the lower-left window will display any local and global state that is visible to that thread. JBuilder's debugger definitely represents the new standard against which other Java debuggers will be measured.

 

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