Preface

The first version of IntelliJ IDEA was released in January 2001. It is a mature, integrated development environment (IDE), designed to help you in the coding process, and supports a large number of different frameworks, tools, and targets. It works with multiple programming languages. It now includes full support for Java 8 and Java EE 7.

The key objective of IntelliJ IDEA is to increase and assist developer productivity. Whether you develop in Java, Scala, or PHP, or make the frontend using HTML and JavaScript, IntelliJ IDEA's smart and relevant suggestions and code completion, on-the-fly code analysis, and respectable refactoring tools will support you in every step.

When you are migrating from NetBeans or Eclipse, you will quickly see that IntelliJ IDEA is different because it understands the context. The IDE knows where you are in the editor and reacts accordingly; you will be surprised at how smart IntelliJ IDEA behaves.

This tool is a generic workhorse rather than a strict Java IDE. In this book, you will learn how to make IntelliJ IDEA work for you and get your job done in the most efficient and pleasant way.