Essential tools: SpringSource

What is SpringSource?

As far as I know, that is the most comfortable open-source tool for developing Spring. It is Eclipse based, so you will be able to complete your favourite IDE with other plugins like Subclipse (SVN), CheckStyle or Covertura.

SpringSource comes with Spring project templates, Maven and JUnit, so, if you want Q, it does their best for you to get it ;)

Its goals:

• J2EE should be easier to use
• It is best to program to interfaces, rather than classes. Spring reduces the complexity cost of using interfaces to zero.
• JavaBeans offer a great way of configuring applications.
• OO design is more important than any implementation technology, such as J2EE.
• Checked exceptions are overused in Java. A platform shouldn't force you to catch exceptions you're unlikely to be able to recover from.
• Testability is essential, and a platform such as Spring should help make your code easier to test.

Yes, they accomplish their goals, so it will be my dev tool for coming reviews, examples and articles.

Download it!
springsource.org