My evolution as a Java programmer is slowing gaining speed.

After working a bit with Websphere Studio and being constantly reminded each time that the software starts that it will only work for 60 days, it became clear that I needed something free. Because free is good. And because a retail single user license for Websphere Studio Application Developer is $4300.00. Hey, IBM, you realize that I can get MSDN Enterprise for less than that!

Since Websphere Studio is built on top of Eclipse, I decided to download the standard Eclipse software and installed Sun’s Java SDK to integrate with Eclipse. Free. Did I mention that I like free?

Anyway, I’ve been working my way through one of my older Java programming books that I worked through before. Everything is coming back to me, and I’m really, really enjoying the Eclipse IDE. For me, missing a nicely designed IDE is the one thing that really made Java programming a hassle in comparison to Visual Studio. The little wizard to build a simple class is just wicked cool. I don't even have to remember "public static void main(String [] args)" again!

VisualAge for Java was overly complex for no reason, which is one of the reasons it is no longer a product, so it’s nice to see that IBM’s influence on Eclipse turned out very well.