When comparing SlickEdit vs BlueJ, the Slant community recommends BlueJ for most people. In the question“What are the best Java IDEs or editors?” BlueJ is ranked 7th while SlickEdit is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose BlueJ is:
All the features you would expect: syntax highlighting, code-completion, templates, extension-manager, git integration, unit-testing, etc..
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Extensive support for programming languages
SlickEdit supports over 50 programming languages on nine platforms.
Pro Built-in beautifier
The beautifier formats code as you type to help improve readability and consistency.
Pro Compiler tools
Pro Scriptable
Write custom macro commands, functions, dialogs and tool windows.
Pro Over 13 emulations
Choose from fifteen keyboard emulations, containing the key bindings and behaviors necessary to emulate other editors (e.g., CUA, Vim, GNU Emacs, etc.)
Pro Extensive configuration options
Pro Easy access to Visual Studio workspace
SlickEdit opens Visual Studio workspace with no conversions needed.
Pro Symbol analysis support
There are powerful symbol analysis features in SlickEdit, including context tagging and references.
Pro Integrated debuggers for multiple languages
Integrated debuggers for GNU C++, Java, Python, Perl, Ruby, and PHP.
Pro Multi-Platform
Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, AIX, HP-UX, Solaris SPARC, Solaris x86
Pro Portable mode
Possibility to set up a portable installation, to run on a USB drive for example.
Pro Easy access to XCode projects
SlickEdit opens XCode projects with no conversions needed.
Pro Third party tool integration
Pro Popular version control system
Pro Many features
All the features you would expect: syntax highlighting, code-completion, templates, extension-manager, git integration, unit-testing, etc..
Pro UML start view
Shows UML chart of your project, making it easy to find classes. Helps beginners get familiar with the structure of Java programs.
Pro Great IDE for beginners
BlueJ was created for educational purposes and is designed to be simple for those who are just learning.
Pro Easy to learn
Because BlueJ was created for teaching purposes, it is designed to be easy to use. It has a user-friendly and intuitive interface.
Cons
Con No command line option
This is a visual only editor
Con It's kinda slow
If you have a very large project or tag database, it can hang the UI.
Con Not good for big projects
BlueJ is much better suited for small projects. It is designed to be simple and quite basic, rather than to handle large applications.
Con Lack of features
There are very few features available in BlueJ that would would expect from an IDE. For example, syntax highlighting is minimal and there is no code completion.
Con Good just for beginners
Not comfortable for expert programmers.