Abstract:
Software development requires the aid of many tools to accomplish a variety of tasks. Java development tools are a dime a dozen, but finding a good Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is rare. The purpose of this project is to design and develop a free, handy IDE to the Java community that can be used by both amateur and professional software engineers to write Java programs quickly and efficiently. The system uses an intuitive Graphical User Interface with dockable toolbars and workspace windows. It provides an editor with syntax highlighting and allows easy navigation through source code with the help of a single tree. It also has a code palette, which enables code templates, ranging from classes and applets to simple statements, to be inserted at the click of a button. The project also explores the area of Source Code In Database (SCID) and moves on to the design and implementation of a tool that parses source code and stores useful information (such as classes, interfaces, fields, methods and their locations) in a conventional SQL database which is accessible to user queries. The inability to locate a piece of information that you know is out there somewhere, but you cannot find it, can be extremely frustrating. SCID can ameliorate this problem. Finding errors has been made very easy, since the application has both a parser and compiler. The parser alerts users to syntax and lexical errors before compiling. This means that the compiler only returns semantic errors and the number of times the compiler has to be run is significantly reduced. All errors are linked to the source code, so users can jump right to the problem and correct it.
