IntelliJ IDEA: A Java Developer's Dream IDE.
Use Cases and Deployment Scope
We use Intellij IDEA as our main IDE for all backend development and, in many cases, front-end development, although some developers prefer to use VSCode. But as far as backend development is concerned, IDEA is our main IDE. We use it for not just coding but also debugging, unit/integration testing, and general note-taking.
Pros
- Ability to do line by line debugging.
- Support for Java and Kotlin.
- Support for general purpose scratch file creation which can be added to git if needed.
- Pretty robust Git GUI which helps a lot while doing VCS Management.
Cons
- I think can have a bit better debugging support by having a more robust hotswap.
- Vis-a-vis front-end development would be good if we built a better Playright testing framework.
- The GitHub copilot does not always produce code that can be lifted-and-shifted.
Likelihood to Recommend
This is a superb tool if your project involves a lot of backend development, especially in Java/Spring Boot and Kotlin. The support for the front end is great as well, but some developers may prefer to use the GitHub copilot add-on. I especially love using the GitHub copilot add-on. It may be less appropriate if your project requires heavy use of HotSwaps for backend debugging, as sometimes the support for that can be limited.
