Java frameworks confussion

Question

In c++, considering 3rd party libraries, I only downloaded them and added them in files and compiler. It was really easy.

I decided to transfer to java. I know basics of build systems and I understand that other JVM languages and java frameworks exist. My question is: why on Earth do I need to preinstall 3 different programs in order to start writing a single framework (example: need sdk to download Gradle, and finaly with Gradle I can write Spring web apps)? Why do I need to use build system do download even a simple library (libgdx) and frameworks? I don't understand this mindset of java and I have many blank spots in my had of how build process and adding libraries and frameworks work. Any tips or good articles? (I couldn't find anything good)

Answer 1

I think you don't need gradle/ maven (maven is more popular) to start working with frameworks/apis.
You can download every needed .jar dependency manually and add to the project, but with maven/gradle it is just easier.

Answer 2

Elva If you are working with spring really helpful might be sts (spring tool suite) or intellij ultimate version. These two supports spring. For example you can follow dependency injection, I'm not able to list more features, I just don't remember 😄.

Answer 3

Thanks Michal. You guided me to remodel my google searches. And if you could answer just one more question: what is the use of plugins in IDEs based on frameworks? Are they offering something more than simple autocomplete or snippets (something like graddle-support plugin in netbeans)