IDEA

Prev don't be afraid of buying books Next

IDEA with Bryan Dollery I've asked Bryan to talk about IDEA IDE from IntelliJ. Bryan is a well-known consultant in New Zealand and an outspoken IDEA user and advocate. IDEA[URL 33] has many features that will help with practicing TDD; in this section we will look at several of them. If I use a class that hasn't yet been imported, IDEA will use a tool-tip to tell me, and offer to import it for me — very simple, very fast. Once the class is imported its methods and attributes are available to me for code completion. If I use a class that doesn't exist, something that we all do at first with TDD, then IDEA puts a lightbulb in the gutter which, if I click on it, offers me a number of code generation options, including the option to create the class for me. If I have an object and attempt to call a method that doesn't exist, IDEA will use the lightbulb again to tell me that it can help out. Clicking on it gives me the option to create the method. Here is where IDEA starts to show its real intelligence. When generating a method, IDEA has to make certain assumptions: the return type, the parameter types, and their names. If I have started with: fragment.doSomething("name"); within fragment's class, IDEA can generate: void doSomething(String s) { } It will then put a red box (a live template query) around void, with my cursor in it. It's telling me that void was an assumption, and that I need to either accept it by pressing enter or tab, or change it. Once I'm happy with the return type, I can press enter to move to the next assumption, the type for the parameter. The final assumption here is the name for the parameter, which I don't like, so I can change it. Of course, if I provide it with more information, say, by assigning the return type to a variable, then IDEA will make better assumptions. To run the tests I have a few choices available to me. I can compile, test, run, or debug, at a class level or a method level. If I right-click on a method then it assumes that I'm interested in that method and offers choices based on the method, but if I right-click on the class name (or a gap between methods) then I'll be offered these choices for the whole class (which is what I usually want). I can also choose to run all the tests within a given package. To run or debug I don't need a main method, only the test methods. Being able to debug at a test-method level is very useful. I don't have to play around getting to the method I really want to test; it's all done for me. The integration with JUnit is very tight. If the GUI runner shows a stack trace I can double-click on a line of the trace and be taken straight to that line in the editor. Fix the error, recompile, and alt-tab back to the GUI runner to rerun the tests. I can also choose to run the text-runner, the output of which appears in IDEA's messages window. However, refactoring is the jewel in the crown for IDEA. Look at your current editor right now, and open the refactoring menu. If it's not at least half the size of your screen then you're really missing out. There are 22 refactorings listed on its menu, but some of those are multirefactorings. Take, for example, the rename refactoring. It works on variables of any scope, methods, classes, and packages — that makes it four similar refactorings in one. When it renames a class, it also renames the file it's in, and when it renames a package it'll rename the directory and ensure that the change is recorded in CVS — this is a very bright tool, nothing is left unfinished. One of my favorites is Change Signature — I can use it to add, remove, reorder, and rename parameters to a method — all at once. If I change a parameter's name it'll do a rename refactoring automatically for me, before it does the rest of the changes. If I add a parameter it asks for a default value. If I reorder the parameters it'll ensure that the method is called correctly throughout my project. IDEA attempts to transparently automate repetitive and common tasks. It leaves nothing undone, and asks for clarification when it's guessing. It's highly polished, looks great, and will probably speed up your coding significantly.

	Amazon