The best tools money can buy

user_204682 0
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In my company (which scored 3/12 on the Joel Test) we have access to free software only, so I was wondering what, in the Java EE world, are the best tools money can buy?

For instance, I was painfully debugging some HQL with p6spy when someone told me about hibernate profiler, which is really great and helpful. And I started to think "there is a world beyond free/open source!"

If you have the chance working with the best tools (including free/open source), what were they? Could you live without them? How did they improve your life and your productivity?

Profilers, designers, frameworks, graphical components, and other tools are welcome.

jakarta-ee java
9 Answers

There's no such thing as the best tools money can buy.

No, it's a euphemism for an attitude that rejects the false-economy of putting up with inferior tools for the sake of bean-counting.

edg_42000

Starting with the basics...

I like eclipse, but I really enjoyed working with IDEA IntelliJ

user_29650

Source Control

Personally, I don't see any huge disadvantage in going with either Subversion or Git, depending on the way your team does things. Perforce is usually the preferred pay option however.

Issue Tracking

This is one area where I really think commercial solutions shine. I'm an unapologetic JIRA fanboy, particularly when it's combined with GreenHopper for a very robust agile project management / issue tracking suite.

user_940260

An example would be Visual Studio and Visual Assist X.

But it's all subjective. I think what Joel meant is:

  1. Pretend everything is free.
  2. Choose the software you want to use.
  3. If it costs, pay for it.
user_951350

I'd argue that in many cases the best tools "money can buy" are actually the open source ones... but that aside, I have a few votes for good commercial tools:

Java Profilers:

I've had licenses for both, and very slighly prefer JProfiler, but they're both very good, IMO.

Code reviews:

Excellent for organizing and executing code reviews.

user_696890
user_1537140

Oracle database

user_2290870

YourKit and JIRA are worth every penny. I haven't used any open-source software that comes close to these.

user_256880

For me, one of the best investement ever was my pro-account at rememberthemilk.com in combination with my android mobile.

And for those who want "tools" only: The Omondo-UML-Plugin for Eclipse is what I wish I had money for.

user_442930
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