IntelliJ IDEA 10.0 is here people!

In a fit of exuberance I wrote up a mail addressed to my team at SocialTwist informing them about the latest installment to further the awesomeness of an already great IDE - IntelliJ IDEA 10.0. Re-posting it here ...

So sit back, relax and revel in the glory of the greatness of IntelliJ IDEA. Here goes ...


IntelliJ IDEA 10.0 is here!

Bad News: Our existing licenses don't work with it. So the max one could do with the existing licenses is upgrade to version 9.x

Good News: It's available in a Community Edition version which comes for free (http://download.jetbrains.com/idea/ideaIC-10.exe). Yup, free as in speech and free as in soft drink.

So what's new in IntelliJ IDEA 10.0¹ -

• Super quick startup. I haven't been able to see the splash screen yet! (And yup, it's enabled).
   
• Memory usage is tighter and we are nearing IntelliJ IDEA 5.0 memory usage levels. (And this, gentlemen is in stark contrast to IDEA 9.0's mammoth requirements)
   
• You get a suggest-as-you-type interface. No need to type Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+Shift+Space or Ctrl+Shift+Alt+Space (These are the various code completion shortcuts in IDEA.). I guess IDEA went the Instant way.
   
• It claims to compile the file in background - while I don't know how does that work or whether it really does, I did notice a slight performance improvement (over and above the usual snappy performance for which IDEA is already well-known).
   
• The indexing takes less time, can be configured with a higher level of granularity and is less irritating and let's you develop with pleasure indeed.
  
  
• And another thing, the two versions 10.0 and <= 9.x can co-exist meaning you may install 10.0 and try it out without affecting your current set up!

So far, so good. I am still exploring. Just installed it yesterday. So what are you waiting for? Try it out. It's fast. It's free.

If you need any more convincing about it's awesomeness -

1. http://stackoverflow.com/questions/239732/things-possible-in-intellij-that-arent-possible-in-eclipse
2. http://blogs.jetbrains.com/idea/2010/12/intellij-idea-10-rc-3-indexing-speed-improvements/
3. http://www.aldana-online.de/2010/12/12/intellij-idea-rocks-revisted-for-10/
4. http://www.infoworld.com/d/developer-world/infoworld-review-top-java-programming-tools-191?page=0,4

Also, If you have already tried it, I would love to hear what you have got to say about IntelliJ IDEA 10.0!



1 - The most intelligent Java IDE out there!