Java Software

This page contains pointers to Freely available Java software which I like and use.

• JEdit (Requires JDK1.1+Swing or JDK1.2)
  JEdit is a programmer's editor. It supports syntax-highlighting for virtually all common programming languages, and there is a wide range of plugins available too. This is my favourite text-editor after GNU Emacs, and is much smaller to download!

• BeanShell (Requires JDK1.1+Swing or JDK1.2)
  BeanShell is a Java interpreter, it allows you to type Java commands and have them executed immediately rather than having to compile them. It is an excellent experimental tool and can be integrated into your own Java programs (for example, to allow user-scripting in your software).

• Jikes (Works on most popular operating systems)
  Jikes is a very fast Java compiler which has been given to the Java community by one-time bad-boy of computers, IBM. It is much faster than the standard compiler supplied by Sun since it is not itself implemented in Java. In recent years IBM has redeemed itself and has thrown its weight behind several cool technologies including Linux and Java. They have also taken to releasing very cool software for free to the general public. Because of this, IBM is now in the Free Software good-books.

• WeirdX (Requires JDK1.1+Swing or JDK1.2)
  This is not *that* useful, but really cool. It is an X server implemented in Java. That means that you can run remote X programs and have their display sent to WeirdX which will display them in a window. I suppose this could be useful if you are using a non-X-Windows platform and need to run remote X programs. Given that it is implemented in pure Java WeirdX is pretty fast too!