Quick Switch Scheme with IDEA

Today a peer has presented some code at the projector. The font size was to small for most of us.

Luckily at our company we have Intellij IDEA.

A great feature: Just press Ctrl and turn your mouse wheel towards you and… yes the font of the current file increases.

Then he switched to another file. Mmh, there was the small font again.

A rocking feature to address this issue: Ctrl + Backquote or View > Quick Switch Scheme.

Beforehand, define a second color scheme presentation (Settings > Editor > Colors & Fonts). Set a font size of e.g. 24 points.

If you held a presentation at a projector just do a Quick Switch Scheme. Press 1 (Switch Color Scheme). Next, select presentation and here we go:

Install Subversion For Local Usage

My IDE has a build-in history. Nevertheless I often use a “real” version control system for my sample projects. Today I setup a local subversion repository:

Install it: sudo apt-get install subversion

Create the repo: svnadmin create ~/svn

Tell your IDE where to find the repo: file:///home/struggy/svn

Connect your project and you are done.

Installing Java 7 Snapshot on Ubuntu

On my Ubuntu I’m facing this JVM Bug which suddenly freezes the keyboard of IDEA. Now I’m trying Anils suggestion. Therefore I need to install a Java 7 snapshot:

1. download self-extracting binary file of java 7 snapshot
2. run chmod +x jdk-7-ea-bin-b48-linux-i586-19_feb_2009.bin to make it executable
3. run ./jdk-7-ea-bin-b48-linux-i586-19_feb_2009.bin to extract the archive
4. run sudo mv ./jdk1.7.0 /usr/lib/jvm to move it to the other JVMs
5. run update-alternatives --config java to check how many JVMs you already installed
6. run sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0/jre/bin/java 3
   I got 2 installations, so I need to specify a 3
7. run sudo update-alternatives --config java to chance your java version.
8. run java -version to validate everything is fine

To tell IDEA 8.1 to run with Java 7 you need to add -Didea.no.jdk.check=true in idea.vmoptions.

Keep your fingers crossed for me that this will fix that problem;)

TDD with IDEA – Test List

Hi there!

One aspect of TDD is go step by step and keep the focus. If you follow the Boy Scout Rule and have a common project it is easy to lost that focus. Like Kent Beck teaches us in Test Driven Development it is good to use a Test List. Normally a pen and a paper is enough. I like to have it integrated into my IDE. Fortunately Sergiy have had that same wish and wrote the Tasks-Plugin for IDEA. Great.