In this case a bunch of former Java devs touching Java for the first time in a while. There could be something to that.
Could be they've forgotten how, but this isn't the first experience like this. I am doing fine with the tools even though they don't do everything when the language is not statically typed).
Java isn't perfect and when people also treat their IDE as a glorified text editor I think it is no wonder they dislike it.
(If you go with Java, embrace it. This is probably the thing I disliked most about the way programming was taught in school: they used Java, but without the tooling that makes it awesome. Supposedly so we should learn it well.
If anyone here teaches Java: by all mean have your students use javac in the first assignmemt but teach them maven the very next thing you do. Learn them to use an IDE -
it's not harmful as long as you don't accept autogenerated code.)
Nothing. There is nothing wrong with code generation in a production setting with "grown up" engineers who uses version control and knows the pitfalls.
The part in parenthesis is just a rant about education and how teachers use notepad and javac to teach Java.
So my point is the only thing students shouldn't use in an IDE is code generation.
But going from javac to Maven in CS1 would be insanely difficult; there are many prerequisites before one can use Maven. It may only work in top-tier schools.
I too fell in love with NCrunch during my few months with .Net.
It's possibly the single tool[0] I'll miss from the .Net world when I program in Java.
(For anyone who might be wondering why not Resharper that is because that functionality is provided out-of-the-box with all major Java IDEs. On .Net however, Resharper seems to be almost a must-have for many.)
[0]: I'll be missing Asp.Net MVC, parts of Entity Framework and parts of the C# language too.
