
IntelliJ IDEA 13 is Released - rdemmer
http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2013/12/intellij-idea-13-is-released-work-miracles-in-java-and-beyond/
======
lemmsjid
Having used the beta, and as a Scala developer on a large multi-module
project, this release is a game-changer performance-wise. The memory footprint
is a small fraction of what it once was (literally). While memory is not
really a big issue for a developer these days, this is huge because previously
we were forced to run at large heaps, which would cause 'fun' GC pauses while
typing. The code completion is now fast enough to put back into auto mode.
Similarly, the find functionality is now instantaneous, even when you're
finding variables. They've clearly been playing around with threading on the
editor, because there seem to be many fewer situations where typing slows down
while the system is thinking about other things.

I've appreciated every IntelliJ upgrade. IntelliJ was 'mature' many years ago,
but they continue to push and push and rethink features and experiment. This
release just wowed me enough to gush about it :).

~~~
kvtrew76557
I've also been using IntelliJ for various large projects written in Scala,
currently on the fence deciding whether upgrading to 13 worthwhile. Really
hoping for an upgrade discount for all those who purchased IntelliJ in the
"end of the world" sale last year. I also wish they'd add better support for
profiling and heap dump analysis.

~~~
melling
I don't follow what you're asking for. Since you got a really cheap initial
price, you feel that you should get a cheap upgrade price?

~~~
buzzkills
I think (s)he is hoping that an upgrade will be cheaper than buying whole new
license irrespective of the cheap initial price.

------
sz4kerto
The mind-reader IDE, as we used to call it. It's sometimes scary when you
create a new variable in a class and it gives you the perfect suggestion
(based on what you did elsewhere in the code).

~~~
Gravityloss
Wouldn't that be potential evidence for the idea that the code is likely quite
redundant?

In Java you indeed do need lots of stuff like getters and setters.

~~~
jasonwocky
No, that's an orthogonal concern. You have to use it to understand (edit: or
you have to find someone smarter than me to explain it to you ;).

Jetbrains does something similar with their Ruby ide, but it feels more
advanced in IntelliJ. Certainly the static analysis can gather more
information.

------
drKarl
I got my IntelliJ IDEA 12 license at the doomsday sale. I wish there were
another end of the world ;)

~~~
asapargali
According to
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apo...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dates_predicted_for_apocalyptic_events)
next sale on 22 February :)

~~~
infinii
Can anyone confirm this sale date?

~~~
asapargali
No. Just joking.

------
binarycrusader
My day job and most of my time is spent writing C/C++ code, so I'm usually
working in vim. But IntelliJ is really, really good.

The auto-completion is so phenomenal in IntelliJ, you'll be tempted to learn
Java just to use it. Yes, that's fairly hyperbolic, but after using IntelliJ,
I just can't ever go back to Eclipse or any other Java IDE.

The ability to edit programs while they were running and then see the changes
nearly instantaneously after saving without restarting the program was
fantastic. (Worked just as well as Eclipse's after a few tweaks.)

What I'm really looking forward to is what they do with C/C++ and possibly Go
some day.

IntelliJ is worth every penny if you write Java code; don't doubt it for a
moment. Download the trial and use it if you find that hard to believe.

~~~
tieTYT
> The ability to edit programs while they were running and then see the
> changes nearly instantaneously after saving without restarting the program
> was fantastic.

This feature is news to me. That is, unless you're talking about using it with
the jrebel plugin (and intellij can't really take credit for that). If this is
not what you're referring to, do you have a link where I can learn more?

~~~
binarycrusader
Sure:

[http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/reloading-
classes.html](http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/reloading-classes.html)

Mind you it's limited to the built-in method swapping that the JVM offers.

But you can get more; see also:

[http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2013/07/get-true-hot-swap-
in-...](http://blog.jetbrains.com/idea/2013/07/get-true-hot-swap-in-java-with-
dcevm-and-intellij-idea/)

It was more than sufficient for my needs.

------
paperwork
Since there seem to be some IntelliJ folks here, I'd like to bring up my pet
peeve: please take advantage of modern, gigantic _wide_ monitors.

It makes no sense for code to be in a single column on the left of the monitor
while 2/3 of the right side is almost completely empty space. Instead of just
allowing vertical scrolling, why not allow multiple columns and horizontal
scrolling? This will result in the ability to see twice, in some cases three
times as much code on screen!

~~~
applecore
Open the context menu for a tab by right-clicking it, select "Split
Vertically", and you'll have two columns for tabs.

~~~
paperwork
I don't have intellij installed on my computer here, when you say 'split
vertically,' do you mean it basically opens two views of same file next to
each other, each view scrolling independently? If so, that isn't what I want
-- almost every IDE and text editor already does that.

What I want is similar to how MS Word takes a single blob of text and reflows
it in multiple columns.

~~~
aviraldg
Interesting idea. Don't think it's been done with an IDE before. Expanding
code based on context would be cool too. (eg. second column shows the
implementation of whatever the first column's cursor is on - super handy when
stepping through code)

~~~
ArnoVanLumig
Not sure if it counts as an IDE, but emacs has follow-mode which does this.

[http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html%5Fnode/emacs/F...](http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html%5Fnode/emacs/Follow-
Mode.html)

------
BruceM
Over with Open Dylan ([http://opendylan.org/](http://opendylan.org/)), we've
been building a new IDE using IntelliJ CE and it has been a joy. Even though
we've gone the route of writing a whole new parser and doing new static
analysis tools, it has been a pretty good experience so far. Can't say enough
positive things about this.

------
Sakes
I can't begin to describe how much I love IntelliJ. I sometimes use eclipse or
visual studio, but no one does IDE's like JetBrains. The best thing about
Visual Studios is ReSharper. If you are a VS guy go buy the VS ReSharper
Wrapper from JetBrains.

------
arota
I'm still looking forward to the 'Sublime Text'-like column mode selection
feature[1], currently the top voted feature request, which will be an
excellent addition to IntelliJ. Unfortunately it looks like we'll have to wait
until version 14 for this.

[1] -
[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-80056](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-80056)

~~~
netcraft
with jetbrains folks in here it would be nice to get a comment from them on
this. Even just something that says its not coming would be better than no
response at all. I love intellij, but sublime multi cursors would be a huge
performance improvement. Right now I keep idea, sublime and notepad++ open
most of the day.

~~~
justafucker
please find my comment above

------
mekishizufu
I wish they offered to download the release via torrent, the download speed
from their servers is terrible (currently getting only +- 150 KB/s).

------
maccard
I'm not a java developer, but their tools are fantastic. I started using
PyCharm about 2 years ago, and nothing else compares. Only complaint I have is
that PyCharm's updates aren't as quick as INtelliJ's, so when you guys get the
nice features, we have to wait for it in PyCharm land.

~~~
mdaniel
Depending on which features of PyCharm you use the most, you actually may
benefit from the recent open-sourcing of PyCharm Community Edition. Now you
can use (and theoretically fix bugs in) the master builds which track IJ
development very closely.

------
ninjazee124
Switched from Eclipse to IntelliJ for Java development about a year back and
never looked back. It's amazing how good the tooling and autocomplete is. It's
worth every dollar!

------
martincmartin
I hear they're working on a C++ IDE, I can't wait for it to come out.

~~~
rdemmer
C/C++ IDE, try subscribe to preview:
[http://www.jetbrains.com/objc/features/cpp.html](http://www.jetbrains.com/objc/features/cpp.html)

~~~
eropple
Since moving to OS X fully I've become a real fan of Xcode. I'm curious to see
how AppCode is when you can actually write Objective-C++ in it. I'm a fan of
IDEA, but I'm a little skeptical of this (as AppCode right now isn't as nice
as Xcode anyway).

~~~
olegstepanov
What do you miss most in AppCode from your XCode experience?

~~~
eropple
In no particular order (and I just downloaded 2.5 to check stuff so I wouldn't
waste your time):

\- Counterparts. If it's there I can't find it. (Bonus points if it can do
what Counterparts can't: jump-to-definition in the right pane puts the
appropriate header in the left pane.)

\- Xcode-style back/forward buttons. Coupled with Counterparts, this is really
flexible and pleasant to use. I'm familiar with ctrl-tab switching in IDEA but
I don't really like it as much.

\- The debugger interface feels clunky. I'm used to it with Java/Scala in
IDEA, but I feel like Xcode doesn't aggravate me as much. Perhaps it's just
because it's more responsive in its presentation?

\- Having to remember to hit "Debug" rather than just "Run" is annoying. I get
why it exists, but the first time I went "wait, why are my breakpoints not
firing?", the need to make that decision lost me.

\- UI clutter everywhere. There's too much thrown at me, too fast. Opening
AppCode's preferences pane is overwhelming _even though_ I'm very familiar
with IDEA (it's not good there either). There's too much crap thrown at me
that I don't care about. I don't care about HTTP proxying. I don't care about
XSLT files. I don't care about Live Templates. But they're taking up eye- and
brain-space. I would strongly recommend that JetBrains figure out exactly what
the 95% case actually _use_ and find a way to progressively reveal remaining
features for the 5%.

\- Native widgets. Everything just feels wrong and it's competing against a
really wonderful native UI and experience, to its detriment. I really like
IDEA because it's head and shoulders above Eclipse and NetBeans, but going
from native Cocoa widgets to AppCode is very unpleasant. I strongly feel that
the native widgets in Xcode make it feel more responsive, with animations and
transitions that lend a feeling of "snappiness"; I don't know if it actually
is faster than AppCode, but it feels it.

\- In this vein, making me go from the eye-shock that is AppCode to Xcode to
use IB is probably not helping matters from a marketing perspective. Old-
hotness/new-busted is reminding me of the pluses of Xcode, which probably
isn't what JetBrains wants me to be thinking about.

There are some things that I really enjoy in it - I like that it Just Works
with my Xcode projects, I love that, when I use liblogog, the file/line paths
that are emitted by logging statements become hyperlinks in the output window
- but overall it's like using Linux on the desktop: there are a thousand
little frustrations that make it less pleasant and pleasurable to use.

~~~
akulbe
@eropple I hope you get that I'm not trying to minimize or trivialize your
concerns. I just wanted to point out something that impressed me.
@olegstepanov the guy that just asked you for your feedback... he's the CEO of
Jetbrains.

I'm _really_ glad that my friend introduced me to IDEA and it's what I use for
nearly all of my work with code.

These guys make _kickass_ products, and the fact that they really enjoy their
work comes out in the quality of their stuff, and how they treat their
customers.

~~~
eropple
Yeah I'm aware, and I was impressed that he'd be hanging around here. And
don't get me wrong: I'm a fan of JetBrains. TeamCity saves my bacon on the
regular and both dotPeek and ReSharper are great when I'm working in .NET.
From the perspective of an Android developer (day job) and a Scala fan, I love
IDEA--it's very smart where I need it to be smart. Thing is, I don't need my
IDE to be nearly as smart when writing C++, or even what Objective-C I have to
write for tools and such. I need it to not frustrate me, and I'm very willing
to spend money on tools that do that. I'd love it if AppCode progressed to a
point where I felt like it was a good investment.

And, too, I'm sympathetic with regards to most of the stuff I enumerated in my
previous post - a lot of it comes down to being non-native, and trying to
match that in Java is kind of like having your foot in a bucket.

------
codex
Great--now when can we get decent font rendering for IDEA in Linux? The Swing
rendering is horrible.

~~~
VMG
I had those with Android Studio. _Removing_ these lines from
studio$ARCH.vmoptions fixes the font issues on Arch Linux:

    
    
        -Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=lcd
        -Dswing.aatext=false

------
wiradikusuma
Slightly off topic, the Pinterest-style layout (not horizontally-aligned) is
annoying. It's difficult to read.

Other than that, congrats! IntelliJ is the only IDE that keeps surprising me
in positive ways (like, "OMG, it can do that?")

EDIT: Arrgh, seriously it's difficult to read. Is there a list with
conventional layout?

------
waterw
So I've never really understood how the products are differentiated from each
other. If I bought Intellij IDEA, does that mean I can download free plugins
to get the same functionality as PyCharm? Does PyCharm support Javascript? If
I want to do Django _and_ Javascript, do I need to buy IDEA?

~~~
WickyNilliams
As I understand it, the plugins give the exact functionality that the more
language-specific products offer. However they are typically one version
behind. e.g. if RubyMine is on v6, the ruby plugin for IDEA will have
equivalent features of RubyMine v5

~~~
topka
IntelliJ IDEA is released once a year, and smaller IDEs are about twice a
year. Because of this the plugins may miss some features for some time, that's
true. But now, after the release of IntelliJ IDEA they will be updated with
the latest Ruby, Python, PHP, etc. functionality

------
benjamincburns
I'm a recent convert. Most everything I do outside of Java development (C,
Python, JavaScript) is in vim, but I just can't kick the IDE habit for Java
dev. And then here comes IDEA making it even harder to quit! Being that I'm
working on large codebases (GeoServer/GeoTools, and our own stuff), I'm really
looking forward to the performance enhancements. I'm also _very_ happy with
the recent improvements to the IdeaVIM plugin. Still not quite as snappy as
real vim, but it's getting closer with each release.

Also, it looks like their download servers are getting hit pretty hard at the
moment (getting 30-60KiB/sec on a 100Mbit downstream link). I'll take that as
a strong vote of confidence!

------
annasaru
I had unrealistic expectations of this IDE... Some of the current enhancements
are nice (Search anywhere, for example).. The favorite theme they tout
(Darcula) is not yet upto Sublime's theme, IMO. Somehow it feels gratuitously
helpful-- and I can't accuse it of getting in the way (an easy trap to fall
into). When it came to Python, I could not stand Pycharm - which uses the
kernel from the java Idea-IDE. (disclosure: when i code Python I use emacs,
idle, or Wing Ide). So there is something in its DNA that I end up tolerating
- but am not crazy about. edit: I ran away from eclipse - that atrocity, so
Idea was a refugee camp.

~~~
fphhotchips
There's definitely a difference between PyCharm and IDEA. I think it's that
the code completion is psychic in IDEA, so I find myself writing about 1/3rd
of each line and then hitting enter.

------
jacobn
If anyone else is having symbol resolution / syntax highlighter problems with
their Play 2.x / Scala / SBT project after upgrading: be sure to File ->
Invalidate Caches / Restart...

[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/SCL-6337](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/SCL-6337)
[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/SCL-6338](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/SCL-6338)

[http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/cleaning-system-
cache....](http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/cleaning-system-cache.html)

~~~
SSLy
Holy shit, there it is. Thanks, man.

On side note: you can see how they follow OS X patterns in filling blank
space: then that cloth, now just dark texture (like notif center)

------
nizmow
I'd love them to do a Mono / .NET IDE so that I wouldn't have to use Xamarin
Studio on Linux / Mac anymore. Actually, I'm going to see if I can go put this
on a wish list somewhere...

------
hhandoko
I actually own licenses for various JetBrains products, I just wished they'd
introduce bundled pricing.

------
allengeorge
I've been using the EAP for a while now, and it's been a real improvement over
12. I'd totally pay for the upgrade...and a Go IDE (hint, hint)

~~~
lexalizer
Go IDE +1

~~~
jksmith
Add another for Golang

------
mgkimsal
Offtopic, of course, but I'll post here anyway...

I've been meaning to post a bug report about this - I can't get conditional
breakpoints to work with Grails debugging. Regular breakpoints, fine, but
conditionals... I get an error that "'this' is not available" when it hits the
breakpoint.

Searched around - can't find any other reports of this, but it's been a
problem since at least IntelliJ 12, and in the 13 beta that I tried - I don't
have 11 around any more, but I could swear it used to work.

EDIT: added bug report:
[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-117458](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-117458)
although it looks like it was reported and marked as 'fixed' in
[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-100647](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-100647).
Still doesn't seem to work though.

~~~
rdemmer
I'll make sure the team is aware of your comment here.

~~~
mgkimsal
thanks.

------
cmicali
My day to day would be significantly harder, less fun, and more frustrating
without IntelliJ. Big thanks to the team for making such an incredible
product.

No major updates for me in 13, but all the little things add up to a nice
update.

------
octix
I love and hate Eclipse/STS, but I don't think I will ever switch to IDEA, I
love my freedom more. The least I can do for open source community is to use
open source products and report bugs.

~~~
locopati
If you are a professional, why not use a professional tool?

~~~
jebblue
You seem to be suggesting that professional coders don't use open source tools
or that open source tools aren't professional?

------
trailfox
The most annoying thing about IntelliJ is the way it's keyboard shortcuts
clash with virtually every keyboard shortcut of your average Linux distro.
Other than that it's an awesome tool.

~~~
krisdol
You can edit them to your heart's content though. I have never had an issue,
but I use the "Default for XWin" setting. There are about a dozen other keymap
templates available by default, though.

~~~
trailfox
I use the defaults, and then set about removing all shortcuts from my desktop

------
josso
Great update, but still no support for Java 7 only in OS X. :(

~~~
danieldk
I take that you mean running IntelliJ under Java 7? JDK 7 and 8 work fine for
development!

~~~
josso
Exactly. I should've mentioned that. You can't run IDEA with only Oracle JRE
7. You need to install Apple's JRE 6 too.

~~~
Glide
I think it has to do with retina display support in the Oracle JRE 7.

I remember searching for retina display stuff in JDKs and saw a post from the
people from JetBrains post differences between the JDK 6 from Apple and JDK 7
from Oracle. It was also a very informative post as well.

------
dabeeeenster
I never thought I'd say it but it seems that they are getting close to the end
of the line feature wise! Not a lot here that is making want to upgrade from
12...

~~~
pestaa
At the office our jaws regularly drop at JetBrains' attention to detail, too.
PHP development would be nightmare without their tools. If you're ever reading
this, thank you guys very much.

~~~
rdemmer
The team is definitely reading this and thank you for your kind works.

~~~
sergiotapia
RubyMine allowed me to learn Rails well and make a living for me and my
family. Definitely the best $70 I've invested in my career. It literally
changed my life by allowing me to make much more money as a Rails developer.
Send my thanks to the RubyMine team! :)

~~~
rdemmer
The team wants to know if they can use this on our website :-)

Drop me a line at robert(dot)demmer[at]jetbrains(dot)com if you're willing.

------
rahulrav
Thanks for supporting Renderscript syntax highlighting.

Please add support for building Android projects with Renderscript source
files. That's the last reason why I use ADT.

------
rnikander
Just trying the Scala plugin now. I really want to leave Eclipse. I wonder if
it will show me implicit conversions and parameters, and if will handle hairy
stuff like macros. And does it use the presentation compiler like
ScalaIDE/Eclipse? If not I'll be surprised if can handle macros. So far, so
good though. Need to import a bigger project as a test...

~~~
sluukkonen
It does highlight implicit conversions by default (they're underlined and have
a light blue background colour). I don't think it does anything special w.r.t.
macros, but I might be wrong.

As far as I know, they use their own compiler for highlighting type errors in
the editor etc. and SBT for the "actual" compilation. The presentation
compiler didn't exist when they started Scala support, so they rolled their
own solution.

~~~
rnikander
My tests so far are encouraging. I'd like to know their intent with Scala.
That plugin seemed to go nowhere for years, and ScalaIDE/Eclipse looked like
it would be the only option. But ScalaIDE is still pretty buggy. If they are
committed to making Scala support as good as their Java stuff, that would be
awesome.

------
benblack86
Anyone know how to use the new Scala plugin with sbt (tutotial link)? I've
imported my sbt project, but it doesn't work.

------
henrik_w
I've been using IntelliJ IDEA for many years (coming from C++ in EMACS), and
it truly made me more productive:
[http://henrikwarne.com/2012/06/17/programmer-productivity-
em...](http://henrikwarne.com/2012/06/17/programmer-productivity-emacs-versus-
intellij-idea/)

~~~
octix
Besides IDEA what else have you used as a real IDE?

~~~
henrik_w
I haven't used any other IDEs really, so it is possible there are _even
better_ IDEs, but the step from Emacs to IDEA was huge (but of course it was
also a switch from C++ to Java).

Editor-wise it's Emacs and Vim (for the past year or so).

What's your experience with IDEs?

~~~
octix
My thought was that any IDE would've made you more productive imho. That's the
point of an IDE to give you as much possible so you could focus on your
tasks...

~~~
hrabago
True story: Before Intellij, I was working for a client whose IDE standard was
VisualCafe. I hated it so much and kept interfering with what I was doing that
I actually reverted to Notepad and building/testing via command line.

Not all IDEs can make you more productive.

------
suyash
How much is it? If I had the version 12, that I bought recently, do I need to
pay for the new version to upgrade?

~~~
glogla
It seems to be 180 EUR for new developers.

~~~
lexalizer
It's a great IDE and totally worth the money.

------
clavalle
So, Android is supported in IDEA now? Nice.

It is kind of annoying having two IDEs, one for Android development and one
for everything else.

Edit: Badly worded. What I meant to say are the Android Studio improvements
and updates are now in Ultimate, which is nice.

~~~
mdellabitta
IDEA's done Android for years now. And now it's the basis of Google's Android
Studio.

~~~
rdemmer
IntelliJ IDEA is the base for Android Studio, the new IDE for Android
developers.

Read all about it: [http://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2013/05/15/intellij-idea-
is-t...](http://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2013/05/15/intellij-idea-is-the-base-
for-android-studio-the-new-ide-for-android-developers/)

~~~
clavalle
Badly worded on my part. What I meant was that Android Studio updates are now
included in Ultimate since it was based on version 13, which is nice.

~~~
skelsey
IMO, Android Studio is still far behind IDEA 12. There are some new features
in AS, but IDEA is far more stable.

------
kevbry
Still no support for projects on UNC paths, so not terribly useful for those
forced to use folder remapping in Windows. I'd love to switch our students
away from Eclipse, but without UNC support it can't happen.

~~~
brianwawok
You can't code on a folder on the desktop, and copy it off to network drive
when done? Or better yet, push up to a git repo?

------
sgt
Anyone else also have this problem? When I try to start IntelliJ 13 on OS X, I
get this in system.log:

Dec 3 18:21:12 tk com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[281]
(com.jetbrains.intellij.61632[52967]): Exited with code: 1

------
konos
I won't use it... It has so many bugs when I using android UI design tool.
These bugs are annoying me.

I'll use version 12 when version 13 is stable.

------
weaksauce
Awesome! The only thing that I am really wanting is multi key timeouts in the
ideavim plugin. So you can have jj remap to Esc in insert mode.

~~~
merqumab
If you haven't already, it might be a good idea to vote for that feature:
[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/VIM-448](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/VIM-448)
and
[http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/VIM-518](http://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/VIM-518)

------
Egregore
Even in community (free, open source) edition you can use the Haxe plugin,
which will allow you to work with latest (3.0) Haxe version.

------
tootie
Looking at Spring request mappings is the last thing I could do in Eclipse
that I couldn't do in IntelliJ.

------
tuananh
I got a free upgrade license since my purchase date is so close to the release
date :D. JetBrains is awesome!

------
CaRDiaK
Hopefully this might display a little better than IJ12 does with HiDPI in
windows. It currently looks awful..

