Aaron Lara
Developer Relations Lead at Genuitec. I like my software like I like my coffee: hot and delicious (ok, I suck at this...). Ah! I'm a gamer, so if you want to play something in steam just let me know :D
Posted on Jun 22nd 2016
I always appreciate those “small things” that help me write better code and code faster. Eclipse Neon comes with a great set of those small things right in the Java editor.
As a Java developer I can’t help but feel excited about the new features Neon has and how it has a better integration with Java 8 (in fact, Java 8 is a requirement now). I will list here the Java editor improvements I’m most excited about.
Content Assist Improvements
Eclipse’s content assist (Ctrl+Space) was really good already, but now it’s even better! As you type, matching results are displayed in bold in the Content Assist popup. Pretty cool, right?
Creating New Fields from Constructor Parameters
You can invoke a quick assist dialog by pressing Ctrl+1 in the constructor and it will allow you to automatically create fields from the parameters passed along. It is actually a really handy feature. Otherwise you have to type the usual this.variableName = variableName and also make sure to declare the fields…. well that’s something we do too often, don’t we? Again, it’s the little things.
Null Check Templates
Hey, don’t forget to check for null values! 🙂 Again, something we do all the time! Well, Eclipse Neon saves us a few keystrokes by adding null check templates. Just start typing “if” and invoke the content assist (Ctrl+Space). A new “ifNotNull” template displays to save us some typing.
Rename Getters and Setters When Renaming Fields
Now when renaming fields using refactoring (Alt+Shift+R), use the Options… link on the popup to display the Rename Field dialog. From this dialog you can choose to also rename the getters and setters of the field. So yeah, no more weird-named getters and setters because we forgot to rename them after we changed the name of a field.
Conclusion
Don’t you love to write code so smoothly that you only have to think about the actual logic instead of struggling with remembering variable and method names, missed checks, typing too much recurrent code, etc.? Well I do and I definitely love the BIG help in the SMALL things Eclipse Neon brings. Want to see for yourself? Download Eclipse Neon.
For more cool Eclipse Neon features for Java developers visit https://www.eclipse.org/eclipse/news/4.6/jdt.php.
Here’s a picture of my dog, Zelda. It’s unrelated but she is cute, isn’t she? 😀
