Improvements Needed For Intellij Idea

IntellijIdea is a Java IDE with built-in refactoring patterns. This page consists of list of improvements sought.

Beware: the following comments seem to be at least 6 months out of date...

So far:

It's hard to browse the subclasses of a class. (Try Ctrl-H)
ObjectBrowser and editor ala VisualAge
Manual Compilation is a real nuisance
Bad use of screen space (BorderLayout basically)
Compile errors not shown in package view or structure
'Source' view builds packages from the path and shows 'com', 'com.foo' packages when they don't actually exist
Working directory defaults to the IDE install dir, not the project root
If there are broken classes, no class output is produced at all - very very bad for refactoring which is what IntelliJ sells itself on.
When creating a new project, you cannot create a new folder for the location of the project files. You need to do that externally!!!!
I used wizard to create a class which asked for the class name, so I typed 'Test'. It created Test.java (it didn't ask for the package so I didn't give it). The package was now wrong so I tried to refactor it and move it to the package 'com.test'. The "OK' button didn't respond after I entered the new package in the dialogue box – no error, nothing. I had to cancel and create the package first! So much for impressive refactoring.
Auto completion is bad. Typing 'hasht' and doing autocomplete produced 'No Suggestions'. Come on!! I had to complete on the full class name even when the class was imported.
Focus stealing (on Windows). I have to wait idly, staring at the wall, while IntelliJ finishes whatever task it's doing, because I can't work in another window, because IntelliJ will steal focus in the middle of my typing in the other window. -KayJohansen (see http://www.intellij.net/forums/thread.jsp?forum=22&thread=97546&message=3352214&tstart=0&trange=153352214)

>>It's hard to browse the subclasses of a class.

Class hierarchy browser is implemented in IntellijIdea version 2.5, which is released in December, 2001 -- SergeyDmitriev

I saw a demonstration using IntelliJ Idea by Bob Martin at XP Universe. It really caught my attention. Unfortunately, there were garbage collection moments, and the thing is a memory hog and starts up slowly. But it does stick by the ability to go by keyboard only, which I appreciate as a vi user. I was not converted, but intrigued.

IntelliJ just scratches the surface of what I believe is possible. This may be pie-in-the-sky, but I want code to be putty in my hands. I want to be able to view it from all angles and to escape the tunnel vision that a mere editor gives you. The editor should help you in every way possible to understand code you've never seen before, and refactor it safely.

I suppose the reason this vision has not been fulfilled is because of its sheer magnitude.

Here is a partial list of features I might like in such an editor. (This list is somewhat Java-oriented - sorry. And since I only tried IntelliJ for a few minutes, some of these might be implemented already.)

Expand temporarily:
- package names on symbols with implied package names
Collapse temporarily:
- comments
- braces (and enforce strict indenting)
- blank lines
- entire methods
Show comments in boxes, without // and /* embellishments
Color code symbols according to where they are defined: within the scope, in the method, in the class, in the superclass, in the super-superclass, etc
Show a fish-lens view
Show relationships between classes
Put a post-it-note on method names, saying where they are called from
- grey out methods and variables that nobody, apparently, uses
- grey out unnecessary import statements
Collect all variable definitions for a given scope in a box

Here's one I suggested in an enhancement request to IntelliJ: recognition of environment variables in classpaths, sourcepaths, etc.

Ditto that. I like to switch between editors (currently SlickEdit and gvim) but IntelliJ wants to Be your Environment. This is by no means a unique thing among IDE's, which is, I suppose, why people tolerate it, but I still find it annoying and arrogant. IntelliJ should at least let me import the current classpath environment variable.

Being a SitePad? Pro user, the things I miss in IntelliJ are:

Code Folding (really nice in SitePad?)
File/Open In... (remembers the last 20 or so directories you opened from)
scriptable (it would be really great if IntelliJ were scriptable using Ruby as the JavaScript in SitePad? is a little retro at times - however, the scripting in SitePad? has full access to all the Editor object model and that can be very powerful.)
MINDS Search Engine (really nice for JavaDoc indexing)
Many languages supported and ability to add new languages easily. It took me only a few hours to add PL/SQL to SitePad? and add the ability to do code folding and structure recognition for PL/SQL.

This may sound strange but I would really love the ability to go into a pure vi mode. Some mass edits are very fast and easy in vi with few keystrokes. Currently, I keep both IntelliJ and SitePad? open at the same time and go back and forth depending on the task. I'm hoping that I can eventually use only one and have the features I need. --MikeCorum

Recently VisualAge let me down, I lost half a day because it messed up some byte codes in its brains and started throwing internal vm errors. Later the I solved the problems after reinstalling, but during the day I used both Eclipse and Intellij to do some work.

Intellij misses what VA has: the ability to open several "views" of the project (per package, per class) in top level windows. And a very simple, spartan style UI. There are too many buttons for a guy like me.

My absolute need is to be able to move extremely fast between different parts of the code. No other IDE than VA offers me this, and VA does it without cluttering my sight with unnecessary toolbars, buttons , etc. The usual left side tree view with packages -> classes -> methods is an absolute abomination when I deal with large projects, but all IDEs other than VA use that as the primary navigation tool. Except for this little thing, I loved Intellij. --CostinCozianu

I agree with the package structure comment. That is why I never use it. Almost always I am hitting Ctrl-N to bring up a class if there is no relationship between that class and the code I am working on. If there is, I will normal "Go to Declaration" (Ctrl-B), hit Alt-F7 to find usages of a class or method, or hit Ctrl-H to get a class tree focused on the current class. For me, it does allow me to move extremely fast between different parts of my code. If I need it, I can also always bring up a detailed structure view of the current class file. However, I never bring up the Project or Source views. --RobertDiFalco

I noticed that you can click on the mouse wheel (at least under Win2k) to go to the definition of a method or class.