intellij Archives - Trisha Gee

IDE tips to save you from disaster

February 20, 2025 Trisha Gee

I'm working on creating a training course for IntelliJ IDEA (I've been working on it for a while now, I don't really want to talk to much about it because I'm not sure when I'll actually deliver it). Anyway, as I was thinking through Features You Really Need To Know, I realised that it's not really about code completion and code generation, it's about those features that will get you out of a big, deep hole that you've dug yourself into.

So, I put together my top five features that have saved my bacon, and recorded a video for the Continuous Delivery channel. I have asked around and these features should work for all JetBrains IDEs, not just IntelliJ IDEA.

As usual, I have included the transcript below so you can skim it and skip to the bits that interest you.

Reading Code Is Hard, and tips to improve

December 3, 2024November 22, 2024 Trisha Gee

We spend more time reading code than writing it

This week's video for Dave Farley's Continuous Delivery YouTube channel is me ranting about why reading code sucks, and offering some advice on how to improve.

"Every programmer occasionally, when nobody’s home, turns off the lights, pours a glass of scotch, puts on some light German electronica, and opens up a file on their computer. They read over the lines, and weep at their beauty…."
https://www.stilldrinking.org/programming-sucks

The original idea for this video is from my presentation Reading Code Is Harder Than Writing It, and from my blog post Reading Code is a Skill, an older post which has only become more relevant in the modern age of AI.

Summer Reading 2023

November 13, 2024July 31, 2023 Trisha Gee

I’m about to jet off on my sunny* summer holidays, so it’s a good time to leave you with my recommended reading and learning. Are they all my books and content? Yes. But I do have discounts and deals for them, so that’s something, right? Working With Code in IntelliJ IDEA (Online course) I’ve just … Read more

Tools and Processes for Collaborating on a Book Remotely

December 13, 2022December 12, 2022 Trisha Gee

Screenshot of Helen and Trisha using Code With Me to collaborate

My last post was about the history of writing Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA. Which was mostly for my own gratification, to help me realise just how much time and energy went into it. What people mostly ask me about, though, is the tools we used to write the book and the process we used to collaborate.

Writing A Book Is Hard

December 12, 2022December 1, 2022 Trisha Gee

Getting to Know IntelliJ IDEA book cover

Hey Helen, I know you were disappointed you missed out on a chance to contribute to 97 Things Every Java Programmer Should Know, do you want to write a book with me?
Trisha Gee, Spring 2020

That's how it started.

It's that easy.

[Maniacal laughter in the background]

I have long wanted to write a book. It didn't really matter what type of book (novel, technical) or on which topic (I have opinions on everything). I wanted My Name On The Front Of A Book. I wanted to be An Author. I knew Helen also wanted to be An Author, and that by working together we could keep each other accountable and actually do this.

Upgrading a Maven, Spring Boot and JavaFX application

January 22, 2021 Trisha Gee

I've been migrating all my JavaFX applications to Java 15 / JavaFX 15.0.1 to see if there are any pain points or gotchas to be aware of. I particularly wanted to understand how Maven and Gradle handle JavaFX, and how to successfully build and run the applications in IntelliJ IDEA.

In this blog post I explore the steps taking to upgrade a Spring Boot/Maven/JavaFX application.

New IntelliJ Tricks I Learnt Part 2

September 21, 2020January 9, 2015 Trisha Gee

Apparently, I’m all about Continuous Learning – after I wrote the last post about IntelliJ Tips, I carried on through my trawl of the documentation and, of course, discovered a load more things I didn’t know. And this is all just in the Quick Start section! So here’s the next batch (although once again I’m … Read more

New IntelliJ Tricks I Learnt Today

August 23, 2024January 7, 2015 Trisha Gee

Day three of my brand new job – woohoo! One of my first tasks is checking the documentation of IntelliJ, since I’m already a “Power User”, to see if there’s stuff missing that someone like me might want to see. Firstly, a confession – I’m not sure I’ve actually read the IntelliJ documentation before. I … Read more

New Year, New Adventures

September 19, 2020December 10, 2014 Trisha Gee

Just over two years ago, I embarked upon a journey as a developer / evangelist for a company who was then called 10gen (who got fed up of saying "the MongoDB people", and transformed into MongoDB Inc). My goals for this role were: to learn what it was like working for a company that produced … Read more