In this chapter, we will analyze and compare the leading IDEs that can be used to develop Java applications tested with the help of JUnit 5. An integrated development environment (IDE) is an application that provides software development facilities for computer programmers. Java IDEs are tools that let us write and debug Java programs more easily.
Many IDEs have been created to help Java developers. Of these, we have selected three of the most popular to analyze and compare: IntelliJ IDEA, Eclipse, and NetBeans. At the time of writing this chapter, IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse each had about 40% of the market share. NetBeans had about 10%; we are including it in our analysis because it is the third option overall and particularly popular in some regions of the world.
Which of the possible IDEs you choose may be a matter of personal preference or project tradition. All of them may be used in the same company or even the same project. In fact, this is the case for our example company, Tested Data Systems Inc. We’ll point out the reasons that determined which options the developers chose.