Is the beta build stable and suitable for production?
IntegraStudio Beta builds are quite functional. They contain core features
needed for development (comparable to other languages support in Visual Studio).
However, these builds are meant for testing and evaluation. You might still experience
some bugs or inefficiencies. We strongly encourage you to give us feedback!
If you find problems, do not hesitate to contact us. Especially important are
all cases of crashes or hangs. We want to get rid of them before the official release.
I've found a bug in IntegraStudio. How can I report it? Is there any diagnostic mode?
If you've found bug/problem in IntegraStudio, then please
contact us.
Our support mail address is support@softerg.com. Please include all information you think
might be relevant. For example, if you experience a crash during writing some code,
a code snippet reproducing that crash would be immensely valuable for us.
There is also diagnostic mode. If you would like to create log file, then please go to IntegraStudio Preferences
and enable logging, then repeat the action that caused a bug. On disk there should appear log file,
remove from it all data you don't want to share and send it to us.
I find IntegraStudio useful, but it lacks some advanced features which Eclipse has.
Will they be implemented?
It depends. Eclipse has a vast ecosystem of plugins and it is not realistic
to assume all of them can be re-created in other IDE (at least in reasonable time).
However, speaking of Java coding features (like refactorings, 'code from usage' generators,
etc.), we have them in our schedule. The technology behind IntelliSense for Java
which we have already implemented has enough capabilities and performance to do these
features as well.
How much does it cost?
Current releases of IntegraStudio are free. That will be for Alpha and Beta builds.
When the product reaches official release status (est. 2016), it will be offered
at very competitive price. Single developer license cost will be in $50 - $70 range,
we also plan to offer site licenses for companies with even lower cost per developer.
There is also alternative way -- if you like IntegraStudio, think the product
helps you in your Java development and want to get a free license -- there
is no problem with that ;-) But there is a little catch: in return we'd ask you
for a small favor. Basically we need a little help in popularizing IntegraStudio.
So, if you happen to have a blog, a website, or other Internet activity,
just drop a few words about IntegraStudio or a link to our website. Let us know,
and we'll be glad to send you a license key without any payments (when the product
goes commercial some day). BTW. you can use IntegraStudio with Visual Studio
Community edition as well.
Since we are a small independent software company, we do not have million-dollar
advertising budgets nor costly "partner" agreements which would give us marketing
visibility. We can only rely on the quality of our products and the assumption that
satisfied users will tell others about these products. It worked for our previous product,
WinGDB and gave us a possibility to develop IntegraStudio. If you'd like to
support an independent developer producing high quality software (and do it without
spending any money), please consider the offer.
If you do not have a blog, you can also write a review on the
Visual Studio Gallery site.
How does IntegraStudio relate to Visual J#?
Visual J# is an implementation of Java language over CLR, that means .NET technology.
It is no longer included in Visual Studio (since VS 2008). IntegraStudio is something
completely different. It is a set of extensions to Visual Studio allowing development
with use of real Java SDK on a real Java platform and debugging on a true JVM.
IntegraStudio has no affiliation of any kind to Visual J#.
Does IntegraStudio contain a Java platform or Java language implementation?
No, you must download and install Java Development Kit separately for these components.
IntegraStudio only interfaces with existing JDK. However, it contains bundled packages
of Ant and Maven, just for convenience. You can use your own versions of these tools.
IntegraStudio has configuration options allowing to specify location of needed external
components.
Which build systems does IntegraStudio support?
Beta builds already have a pretty good Ant support. Maven is being implemented and
fairly advanced at the moment. Possibly we will add support for Gradle in some release. Generally, support for
various Java tools is possible according to users' demand.
Does IntegraStudio require using any proprietary/unusual build (or other) file formats,
locking the user into the product?
No, it uses only standard tools established in the industry (e.g. JDK/Ant/Maven).
You can switch to/from other IDE any time while working on your project.
We are developing a mixed Java/C++ project. We use Visual Studio for C++
and other IDE for Java. Would IntegraStudio allow us to use single IDE
for both, decreasing our setup complexity?
This is in fact one of the most important goals of IntegraStudio. Even using
the current beta build, you can have both languages in single solution and build/debug
them simultaneously. The more tricky part is debugger interoperability,
like stepping from Java code to C++ and vice versa. This is partially implemented
in the beta version. Stepping from Java to C++ should work. However,
it has not been extensively tested yet, and we know of problems on some systems.
Please contact us if you experience problems with it. More features for seamless
multilanguage development are on the way.
Which C/C++ compilers does IntegraStudio support for mixed Java/C/C++ development?
IntegraStudio supports Microsoft C/C++ compiler included with Visual Studio.
Support for GCC is possible in the future.
Does IntegraStudio support mixed Java/.NET development?
IntegraStudio supports mixing various languages in single solution, as
described above. It works for any language supported by VS, either by default
or by means of an extension. Same goes for .NET platform languages.
However, advanced debugger interoperability or other special integration
features are not supported for .NET languages yet. It is possible to do in
the future if we see enough demand for that.
Is IntegraStudio a stand-alone IDE?
No, it is an extension to Visual Studio. You need Visual Studio installation
and license to use it. On the other hand, there is a technical possibility to
adapt IntegraStudio to Visual Studio Shell for stand-alone operation. This
can be done on enough user demand. There are no plans to do it for the
1.0 release, though. Also, with Visual Studio Community Edition, you can
use Visual Studio for free (unless you are a big company) and there
is no much need for separate IDE.
What versions of Visual Studio does IntegraStudio support?
IntegraStudio is being tested under Visual Studio 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013
and 2015. These are supported versions.
What editions of Visual Studio does IntegraStudio support?
IntegraStudio supports all editions of Visual Studio except Express and Code editions.
The Express editions lack extensibility support which is required. Visual Studio
Code is really a different product and is incompatible with regular Visual Studio
plugins.
IntegraStudio does not have feature X of IDE Y...
That's quite possible. We do not aim to clone every feature of every existing IDE.
This would not be realizable. Instead, we focus on what's important. We are strongly feedback-driven.
If you think some feature is important, please tell us! Also note that current builds
are only a particular stage of long-term product evolution. The features you need might be
included in some future releases, so please stay tuned.
What about code refactorings / quick fixes?
Starting with IntegraStudio 0.83, the core framework is finished.
There are a couple of quick fixes already implemented, like
auto-generating import declarations for missing type names.
More will be implemented soon.
What about code visualization?
Also planned. Some preliminary implementation is done (class diagrams)
but not ready for release yet.
What about other JVM language support (like Scala)?
Not planned at the moment. We'd like to focus on one language (Java) and
do it well.
When will it be "officially" released?
When it's done :-) No need to hurry, current beta status primarily means it
is just offered for free, and getting better every quarter. So just enjoy
coding in Java under Visual Studio ;-)
Can you offer a phone support, on-site trainings, or sign a Service Level Agreement?
At the moment it would be too expensive for us. We don't hire any special support/marketing
staff yet. It's possible it will change in the future. Now you should consider IntegraStudio as
a shareware product. Our primary support channel is e-mail
(
support@softerg.com). Please feel free to contact us in
any case if you have any question, a problem with IntegraStudio, found a bug, or have a new feature idea.