Eclipse vs NetBeans
Eclipse vs NetBeans …On which side are you on? Let us know which IDE you think is better and why.
Think of Java IDEs and two names that will come up are Eclipse and NetBeans. I have been using NetBeans for many years now and Eclipse has been a more recent addition to my Java armory. I have enjoyed working with both tools and as such don’t have a clear favorite. I prefer NetBeans a little more than Eclipse as I have been using it longer and am more comfortable with it.
The thing I am most surprised about is how rapidly Eclipse has grown and how it has well and truly eclipsed NetBeans over the past year or so.
In the article: Migrating to Eclipse: A developer’s guide to evaluating Eclipse vs. Netbeans, the author shows the differences between the two IDEs.
Just Eclipse or Eclipse in its WSAD avatar or MyEclipseIDE avatar is definitely good but hey..is it so good that nobody wants to be talk of NetBeans these days??? I haven’t as yet tried out the new NetBeans 4 Beta 2 but I do hope it is very good. So that the competition between Eclipse and NetBeans stays fierce and there is no clear winner.
The end user gets two very good IDEs.
* Apr08 Update – Do have a look at this new comparison of JDeveloper, Eclipse and NetBeans
i have been using Netbeans on a Windows box for over 18 months and the stability is fine.
Umm… It’s fine if you ignore the 512Mb of RAM recommendation.
Start with 1GB and more won’t hurt.
It’s the memory people!
Inadequacies of Eclipse:
Eclipse presents a tool/functionality-centric view to the user. Netbeans provides a programmer-centric view. For example, Eclipse puts project building as an ‘external tool’. A programmer would view buiding/compiling as an integrated aspect of an IDE, but for Eclipse, g~d knows that you had to step into a menu called ‘external tools’. If you want to create a project containing JSPs don’t create a J2EE project, but create a Dynamic Web project – remember Eclipse is tool-centric not programmer-centric.
Eclipse requires you to scavenge around for modules/plugins to build a complete suite. Until the recent availability of Callisto web site, you’d never know if you had the complete suite to build J2EE projects.
Eclipse does not spontaneously create a build file for you. You have to learn ant scripting to create your own build file. If you wish to be a Java programmer but not an ant build writer, Eclipse is not for you.
Eclipse docs says, eclipse variables will be available to any external tools. Ant builder is an external, tool right? Try running an ant script with any Eclipse variables (e.g. ${workspace_loc:/source} or ${workspace_loc}/source ) – response is ‘C:/myworkspace/${workspace_ not found’. You have to duplicate by hand all the Eclipse variables into the External Tool window – which defeats the purpose of variables.
Eclipse does not allow you to define source and webroot folders that sit outside your j2ee or dynamic web folder. But you can achieve that but editing the resourcelinking tag in .project file. You can also achieve that by writing your ant file to look somewhere else but if you do so what you see on explorer is not what you get.
Don’t delete your web folder on your j2ee or JSP project in Eclipse. Right click on project properties , there is no way to re-specify your new webroot folder. You’ll have to recreate your folder.
Why is Borland, Google, etc moving towards Eclipse? Because Netbeans is a complete product while Eclipse is not. But drawing people towards Eclipse, these commercial enterprises is able to sell a product, while in Netbeans they wouldn’t be able to! Of course, the actual reason should be – because Eclipse is tool-centric and low-level, that allows Borland and google to transform it into the programmer-centricity they wish to have. But I don’t see why they cannot do that with Netbeans platform. Hmmm… Must be some java politics going on.
Inadequacies of Eclipse:
Eclipse presents a tool/functionality-centric view to the user. Netbeans provides a programmer-centric view. For example, Eclipse puts project building as an ‘external tool’. A programmer would view buiding/compiling as an integrated aspect of an IDE, but for Eclipse, g~d knows that you had to step into a menu called ‘external tools’. If you want to create a project containing JSPs don’t create a J2EE project, but create a Dynamic Web project – remember Eclipse is tool-centric not programmer-centric.
Eclipse requires you to scavenge around for modules/plugins to build a complete suite. Until the recent availability of Callisto web site, you’d never know if you had the complete suite to build J2EE projects.
Eclipse does not spontaneously create a build file for you. You have to learn ant scripting to create your own build file. If you wish to be a Java programmer but not an ant build writer, Eclipse is not for you.
Eclipse docs says, eclipse variables will be available to any external tools. Ant builder is an external, tool right? Try running an ant script with any Eclipse variables (e.g. ${workspace_loc:/source} or ${workspace_loc}/source ) – response is ‘C:/myworkspace/${workspace_ not found’. You have to duplicate by hand all the Eclipse variables into the External Tool window – which defeats the purpose of variables.
Eclipse does not allow you to define source and webroot folders that sit outside your j2ee or dynamic web folder. But you can achieve that but editing the resourcelinking tag in .project file. You can also achieve that by writing your ant file to look somewhere else but if you do so what you see on explorer is not what you get.
Don’t delete your web folder on your j2ee or JSP project in Eclipse. Right click on project properties , there is no way to re-specify your new webroot folder. You’ll have to recreate your folder.
Why is Borland, Google, etc moving towards Eclipse? Because Netbeans is a complete product while Eclipse is not. But drawing people towards Eclipse, these commercial enterprises is able to sell a product, while in Netbeans they wouldn’t be able to! Of course, the actual reason should be – because Eclipse is tool-centric and low-level, that allows Borland and google to transform it into the programmer-centricity they wish to have. But I don’t see why they cannot do that with Netbeans platform. Hmmm… Must be some java politics going on.
The netbeans official site recommends 1G for netbeans. The minimum memory should be 512M. Upgrade your hardware if you feel sluggish or unstable. The minimum memory for Eclipse is 1G. I think every fullfleged java IDE requires 1G memory, or at least 512M as the minimum requirement.
The netbeans official site recommends 1G for netbeans. The minimum memory should be 512M. Upgrade your hardware if you feel sluggish or unstable. The minimum memory for Eclipse is 1G. I think every fullfleged java IDE requires 1G memory, or at least 512M as the minimum requirement.
i dont mean a bit unstable, i mean completely.
im using the latest JDK 1.5 update 9.
I’ll get between 2 and 10 minutes of work out of it, before it crashes.
of course, i am just testing it, on my crappy bedroom pc, while I lie here like a lazy slob in bed.
So, this crappy pc is a Pentium 3, 600 MHz, with only 256 MB RAM.
In light of how people have said this is a memory hungry program, perhaps its crashing due to lack of memory. So i will give it a try on my main box with 1 GB RAM.
I still dont think lack of memory is much of an excuse for an app to crash, windows has plenty of swap space… so if it was just excessive memory usage i would expect my pc to grind into a disk-swap thrashing frenzy. But that doesnt happen. Netbeans just crashes for no reason when i do something completely trivial like highlight some text with the mouse, in preparation for a cut and paste.
I have hardly been able to get any use out of netbeans,as it crashes so often… and this is frustrating because I can see how intutive the IDE is. If it worked it would be great.
To sumarise, Netbeans looks great but is in fact an unstable pile of rubbish.
Like many open source projects it seems to me that the development of netbeans is driven by people who want to cram more and more features in, and they forget, that the most important feature of all, is stability. FIX THE BUGS. GET IT STABLE. and THEN go and add some more features. Fixing these stability issues should not just be a high priority. Not even priority 1. It has to be the ONLY PRIORITY. Everything else is completely irrelevant. Ive looked through this entire thread and i have seen people having stability problems with netbeans for YEARS. So many people have tried netbeans, and been disapointed with the crashes, or sluggishness etc.. and they have dumped netbeans and gone onto use eclipse or whatever. Netbeans will never keep any serious developers happy until they consistently release stable IDEs and start to build up a better reputation.
i dont mean a bit unstable, i mean completely.
im using the latest JDK 1.5 update 9.
I’ll get between 2 and 10 minutes of work out of it, before it crashes.
of course, i am just testing it, on my crappy bedroom pc, while I lie here like a lazy slob in bed.
So, this crappy pc is a Pentium 3, 600 MHz, with only 256 MB RAM.
In light of how people have said this is a memory hungry program, perhaps its crashing due to lack of memory. So i will give it a try on my main box with 1 GB RAM.
I still dont think lack of memory is much of an excuse for an app to crash, windows has plenty of swap space… so if it was just excessive memory usage i would expect my pc to grind into a disk-swap thrashing frenzy. But that doesnt happen. Netbeans just crashes for no reason when i do something completely trivial like highlight some text with the mouse, in preparation for a cut and paste.
I have hardly been able to get any use out of netbeans,as it crashes so often… and this is frustrating because I can see how intutive the IDE is. If it worked it would be great.
To sumarise, Netbeans looks great but is in fact an unstable pile of rubbish.
Like many open source projects it seems to me that the development of netbeans is driven by people who want to cram more and more features in, and they forget, that the most important feature of all, is stability. FIX THE BUGS. GET IT STABLE. and THEN go and add some more features. Fixing these stability issues should not just be a high priority. Not even priority 1. It has to be the ONLY PRIORITY. Everything else is completely irrelevant. Ive looked through this entire thread and i have seen people having stability problems with netbeans for YEARS. So many people have tried netbeans, and been disapointed with the crashes, or sluggishness etc.. and they have dumped netbeans and gone onto use eclipse or whatever. Netbeans will never keep any serious developers happy until they consistently release stable IDEs and start to build up a better reputation.
I know! I agree, that’s what I said (overall) in the previous post. Since 5.5beta2, NB has fixed much of its problems. THAT’S GREAT! I LIKE IT!
I know! I agree, that’s what I said (overall) in the previous post. Since 5.5beta2, NB has fixed much of its problems. THAT’S GREAT! I LIKE IT!
NetBeans 5.5 FCS has been out for several days. Are you still using beta2? It is very stable and the performance is much improved. The startup speed is comparative with eclipse while with many more functionalities shipped.
NetBeans 5.5 FCS has been out for several days. Are you still using beta2? It is very stable and the performance is much improved. The startup speed is comparative with eclipse while with many more functionalities shipped.
Since my posting I have tried out the newwst releases
I have to say that since the 5.5beta2 version, NetBeans stability has greatly improved. I have to say that I am impressed and I was not expecting this to happen this soon. I have been trying the stable release for 3 weeks now and I am happyuto say that it performed perfectly well, NO CRASHES, NO WEIRD EXCEPTIONS, NO NOTHING.
Of course the memory hungry issue still remains, but in that respect I have to add something about Eclipse as well.
First of all I tried to install (on Linux) a profiler (TPTP) which I think is essential to a serious Java programmer. It was a torment and it didn’t even work completely at the end, even though I tried it a number of times and with different OS installations. So,… a (serious) bad one for Eclipse I’m afraid. Later I tried Eclipse distributions (Callisto and IBM) and both have had the same result. The profiling worked partially and with great efforts. Further more, the distribution installations had so many things installed that the software simply surpassed (SHOCKING!) even NetBeans in its hunger for memory.
So, all in all I have to review my statements a bit. I still think that NetBeans has to prove itself a bit further as far as stability goes, but IT DOES seem that it’s making steps in the right direction. As for the future, if Eclipse does not rethink its general architecture (especially integration issues) then, given the very impressive evolution of NetBeans, the latter will take the lead. Also because it is much more enterprise oriented than Eclipse.
Since my posting I have tried out the newwst releases
I have to say that since the 5.5beta2 version, NetBeans stability has greatly improved. I have to say that I am impressed and I was not expecting this to happen this soon. I have been trying the stable release for 3 weeks now and I am happyuto say that it performed perfectly well, NO CRASHES, NO WEIRD EXCEPTIONS, NO NOTHING.
Of course the memory hungry issue still remains, but in that respect I have to add something about Eclipse as well.
First of all I tried to install (on Linux) a profiler (TPTP) which I think is essential to a serious Java programmer. It was a torment and it didn’t even work completely at the end, even though I tried it a number of times and with different OS installations. So,… a (serious) bad one for Eclipse I’m afraid. Later I tried Eclipse distributions (Callisto and IBM) and both have had the same result. The profiling worked partially and with great efforts. Further more, the distribution installations had so many things installed that the software simply surpassed (SHOCKING!) even NetBeans in its hunger for memory.
So, all in all I have to review my statements a bit. I still think that NetBeans has to prove itself a bit further as far as stability goes, but IT DOES seem that it’s making steps in the right direction. As for the future, if Eclipse does not rethink its general architecture (especially integration issues) then, given the very impressive evolution of NetBeans, the latter will take the lead. Also because it is much more enterprise oriented than Eclipse.
exactly, biggest problem in Netbeans is that its is not stable, and performes very very poorly with big projects , especialy duing classpath parsing…
Netbeans is intrusive IDE, example: in order to integrate netbeans with tomcat, it adds filter to tomcat and if you ever use that same tomcat outside netbeans you will get nasty time waisting errors, thats pretty bad ,
Netbeans is slow on windows, slower that eclipse .
Netbeans free project is completly waist of time has no automation what so ever,
netbeans project with its own ant, takes away flexibility in exchange for automation
Netbeans SVN is totaly horrible …
Netbeans CVS is very unstable(nothing beaths Eclipse CVS Repository View)
I personaly got commits corrupted several times,
CVS commit sugnificantly slows down when commiting more than 10 files same time all this might seem not much buttomline it makes IDE to be considered unstable for production development, I think best fit for Netbeans is probably that blue bird or whatever inititative for student, I think for students and universities NetBeans is the Best IDE ever.
I agree it takes more time to get setup with eclipse but once you fo then you are on the way rolling, you have things under your control and it is not as intrusive asn netbeans,
exactly, biggest problem in Netbeans is that its is not stable, and performes very very poorly with big projects , especialy duing classpath parsing…
Netbeans is intrusive IDE, example: in order to integrate netbeans with tomcat, it adds filter to tomcat and if you ever use that same tomcat outside netbeans you will get nasty time waisting errors, thats pretty bad ,
Netbeans is slow on windows, slower that eclipse .
Netbeans free project is completly waist of time has no automation what so ever,
netbeans project with its own ant, takes away flexibility in exchange for automation
Netbeans SVN is totaly horrible …
Netbeans CVS is very unstable(nothing beaths Eclipse CVS Repository View)
I personaly got commits corrupted several times,
CVS commit sugnificantly slows down when commiting more than 10 files same time all this might seem not much buttomline it makes IDE to be considered unstable for production development, I think best fit for Netbeans is probably that blue bird or whatever inititative for student, I think for students and universities NetBeans is the Best IDE ever.
I agree it takes more time to get setup with eclipse but once you fo then you are on the way rolling, you have things under your control and it is not as intrusive asn netbeans,
Yes! I do realise that most people put their opinions in a few words as ‘NetBeans suck’ or ‘Using Eclipse is a waste of time’. In that respect, this is what I think:
I like NetBeans, really! It is an excellent IDE packed with a lot of features, extremely intuitive, and strongly enterprise – oriented even out-of-the-box. At least that is the first impression.
After using it a while a problem emerges! The issue is, I think, the most serious drawback of NetBeans by far! INSTABILITY! It is simply NOT A PRODUCTION PLATFORM. I started off using NetBeans for a Java2D bean I wanted to make. The crashes kept coming like a storm, not to mention the UNBELIVABLE appetite for memory it had.
But dont think I gave up easily! Nooo… I gave this IDE a chance, trust me! In short, after a thorough review of my code (which was fairly simple and, as it turned out, contained nothing to be blamed for), a few weeks of switching JVM’s, NetBeans releases (5.0 vs. 5.5 beta2) and operating systems (FC4, FC5 and SuSE 10.1) my frustration reached the limit. I couldn’t take it anymore. So I thought that if only for a lousy test javabean I had so much grief then the conclusions are rather obvious to draw.
So, I switched to Eclipse, of which I knew nothing. It was hard at first since I was missing the intuitiveness of NetBeans but after about three days of using it my persistent nature triumphed
and I was begining to feel comfortable with it. After some time I must confess that Eclipse truly revealed it’s BENEFITS:
– extremely stable (until present IT NEVER CHASHED ON ME, NOT EVEN ONCE!!!);
– extensive plugin range all over the Internet;
– ability to EASILY generate JAR’s with better control than in NetBeans (on specific subpackages for example);
– text editing is faster than in NetBeans;
– the code – writing assistance tools are better such as: focus on help/source on mouseover, real-time global error/warning display system with quick fix suggestions, quick diff and a few more;
… and DRAWBACKS:
– the visual editor plugin, allthough a better designed, was slower for me than NB5;
– less intuitive (this actually turns into the advantage of more control in just a few days/weeks of usage).
I now think NetBeans WOULD be a great IDE if it would fix the following problems:
– INSTABILITY!
– MINDBENDING MEMORY HUNGER;
Until then I don’t think these IDE’s are even fairly matched since NOT both are production capable. Also take note that the instability and memory hunger problems in NetBeans might even cast a shadow over the stability and efectiveness of the entire Java platform for a person that starts off learning/using Java whith this IDE. This would be tragic at least since Java is without a doubt a superbe programming platform in almost every conceivable way.
So my vote: ECLIPSE, no doubt about it! NetBeans was like the beautiful and tasty-looking candy I got from my grandmother which made my hands dirty and sticky and turned out to be hollow in the middle.
P.S.: Note tha this opinion only takes into account Eclipse and NetBeans since they are both free of charge. I DO agree with people who say that other IDEs should be considered! The choice is yours…
Yes! I do realise that most people put their opinions in a few words as ‘NetBeans suck’ or ‘Using Eclipse is a waste of time’. In that respect, this is what I think:
I like NetBeans, really! It is an excellent IDE packed with a lot of features, extremely intuitive, and strongly enterprise – oriented even out-of-the-box. At least that is the first impression.
After using it a while a problem emerges! The issue is, I think, the most serious drawback of NetBeans by far! INSTABILITY! It is simply NOT A PRODUCTION PLATFORM. I started off using NetBeans for a Java2D bean I wanted to make. The crashes kept coming like a storm, not to mention the UNBELIVABLE appetite for memory it had.
But dont think I gave up easily! Nooo… I gave this IDE a chance, trust me! In short, after a thorough review of my code (which was fairly simple and, as it turned out, contained nothing to be blamed for), a few weeks of switching JVM’s, NetBeans releases (5.0 vs. 5.5 beta2) and operating systems (FC4, FC5 and SuSE 10.1) my frustration reached the limit. I couldn’t take it anymore. So I thought that if only for a lousy test javabean I had so much grief then the conclusions are rather obvious to draw.
So, I switched to Eclipse, of which I knew nothing. It was hard at first since I was missing the intuitiveness of NetBeans but after about three days of using it my persistent nature triumphed
and I was begining to feel comfortable with it. After some time I must confess that Eclipse truly revealed it’s BENEFITS:
– extremely stable (until present IT NEVER CHASHED ON ME, NOT EVEN ONCE!!!);
– extensive plugin range all over the Internet;
– ability to EASILY generate JAR’s with better control than in NetBeans (on specific subpackages for example);
– text editing is faster than in NetBeans;
– the code – writing assistance tools are better such as: focus on help/source on mouseover, real-time global error/warning display system with quick fix suggestions, quick diff and a few more;
… and DRAWBACKS:
– the visual editor plugin, allthough a better designed, was slower for me than NB5;
– less intuitive (this actually turns into the advantage of more control in just a few days/weeks of usage).
I now think NetBeans WOULD be a great IDE if it would fix the following problems:
– INSTABILITY!
– MINDBENDING MEMORY HUNGER;
Until then I don’t think these IDE’s are even fairly matched since NOT both are production capable. Also take note that the instability and memory hunger problems in NetBeans might even cast a shadow over the stability and efectiveness of the entire Java platform for a person that starts off learning/using Java whith this IDE. This would be tragic at least since Java is without a doubt a superbe programming platform in almost every conceivable way.
So my vote: ECLIPSE, no doubt about it! NetBeans was like the beautiful and tasty-looking candy I got from my grandmother which made my hands dirty and sticky and turned out to be hollow in the middle.
P.S.: Note tha this opinion only takes into account Eclipse and NetBeans since they are both free of charge. I DO agree with people who say that other IDEs should be considered! The choice is yours…
If you have a preset mindset that NetBeans will suck, then nothing can be done.
You should be fair enough while doing a comparision.
MyEclipse is good. So is NetBeans.
If you have a preset mindset that NetBeans will suck, then nothing can be done.
You should be fair enough while doing a comparision.
MyEclipse is good. So is NetBeans.
I tried the latest netBean which just sucks.
When I create new web application from existing source, it takes forever to open that source.
MyEclipse 5.0 takes no time.
I tried the latest netBean which just sucks.
When I create new web application from existing source, it takes forever to open that source.
MyEclipse 5.0 takes no time.
My IDE should make me as productive as possible.
An IDE is not the same as a browser.
One can always use the plugin he wants to use in Firefox but not in an IDE.
An IDE should be standards based.
Yes, there should be flexibility but in the case of eclipse it’s too much.
It’s really funny to hear that my IDE will just be a good editor which will compile on the fly and provide some refactoring stuff. (as in the case of eclipse)
If this is what you expect from an ide, jEdit is enough for that.
But an enterprise project is not all about basic editing, code completion, refactoring.
We need more than that and they must be well integrated into the IDE.
You need to develop a jsp page, download a plugin.
You need to develop ejb, download a plugin.
You need to develop jsf, download a plugin.
Webservice…download a plugin
Struts…download again….
Without integration testing, you are let to use the plugin of your choice.
Is this what one expects from a quality IDE?
So, anyone who reads this thread, don’t get boiled away by the sayings like Eclipse is the most widely used IDE, Eclipse is the fastest IDE in the world.
If you did so, you will be residing on the past laurels.
If you want a really good Java IDE, you have only two choices.
Intellij IDEA – Best commercial Java IDE
NetBeans 5.5 – Best Open Source IDE. (Better than IDEA in many aspects)
If you haven’t tried NetBeans, give it a try. You will never look back.
We evaluated numerous java ide’s including Eclipse 3.2, MyEclipse 5.0, JDeveloper, IDEA 5.1, NetBeans 5.0 & 5.5 and finally settled down with NetBeans and IDEA.
We use NetBeans for Java EE development and IDEA for some core java development.
My IDE should make me as productive as possible.
An IDE is not the same as a browser.
One can always use the plugin he wants to use in Firefox but not in an IDE.
An IDE should be standards based.
Yes, there should be flexibility but in the case of eclipse it’s too much.
It’s really funny to hear that my IDE will just be a good editor which will compile on the fly and provide some refactoring stuff. (as in the case of eclipse)
If this is what you expect from an ide, jEdit is enough for that.
But an enterprise project is not all about basic editing, code completion, refactoring.
We need more than that and they must be well integrated into the IDE.
You need to develop a jsp page, download a plugin.
You need to develop ejb, download a plugin.
You need to develop jsf, download a plugin.
Webservice…download a plugin
Struts…download again….
Without integration testing, you are let to use the plugin of your choice.
Is this what one expects from a quality IDE?
So, anyone who reads this thread, don’t get boiled away by the sayings like Eclipse is the most widely used IDE, Eclipse is the fastest IDE in the world.
If you did so, you will be residing on the past laurels.
If you want a really good Java IDE, you have only two choices.
Intellij IDEA – Best commercial Java IDE
NetBeans 5.5 – Best Open Source IDE. (Better than IDEA in many aspects)
If you haven’t tried NetBeans, give it a try. You will never look back.
We evaluated numerous java ide’s including Eclipse 3.2, MyEclipse 5.0, JDeveloper, IDEA 5.1, NetBeans 5.0 & 5.5 and finally settled down with NetBeans and IDEA.
We use NetBeans for Java EE development and IDEA for some core java development.
I’ve been a developer for years but only recently switched to Java. Java in its own right, especially with regard to enterprise development, is overwhelming to grasp, and to ease the curve I took my new found knowledge and looked for tools to shorten the timespan of this learning curve.
Now its my opinion that, in an environment as standards-driven as Java, that the tools utilised should assist in the correct practices and not only serve as tools to simplify development, but also as a basis (and example) of good programming principles within the evironment it is targetted at. In this regard I believe Netbeans beats Eclipse hands down by removing a lot of the burdon of choosing the correct option from amongst thousands and then configuring it to the industry accepted practices from the developer.
I prefer the environment in which i choose ‘new web abpplication’ and then conform to the model presented by the IDE, which came shipped with it.
In Eclipse, after finally getting behind how the plugin infrastucture works, I found myself presented with too many different options from too many different vendors for the same task. How do I know which one to choose? Further, as it all comes from different software houses/projects all over the world, they don’t seem to integrate that well. Just as you feel that you have the tool that does the job the way you want it to do, along come the next challenge and you find that the best tool for that job doesn’t co-operate with the previous one.
This over-complicates things. Eclipse should be controlled by a body that decides based on user input which of these free tools out there are the best, and it should make them standard features. Install eclipse base. Then install the J2EE pack, then the GUI pack etc and these should contain the packages you want. Then, after that, you can customise and swop options out. That way we will end up with a MyEclipse that is free.
Netbeans is simple, easy to use, took 10 minutes to configure, and until Eclipse changes their ways will remain my choice, even though I do believe that Eclipse is more powerful IF YOU KNOW WHAT TO USE.
My two cents 🙂
I’ve been a developer for years but only recently switched to Java. Java in its own right, especially with regard to enterprise development, is overwhelming to grasp, and to ease the curve I took my new found knowledge and looked for tools to shorten the timespan of this learning curve.
Now its my opinion that, in an environment as standards-driven as Java, that the tools utilised should assist in the correct practices and not only serve as tools to simplify development, but also as a basis (and example) of good programming principles within the evironment it is targetted at. In this regard I believe Netbeans beats Eclipse hands down by removing a lot of the burdon of choosing the correct option from amongst thousands and then configuring it to the industry accepted practices from the developer.
I prefer the environment in which i choose ‘new web abpplication’ and then conform to the model presented by the IDE, which came shipped with it.
In Eclipse, after finally getting behind how the plugin infrastucture works, I found myself presented with too many different options from too many different vendors for the same task. How do I know which one to choose? Further, as it all comes from different software houses/projects all over the world, they don’t seem to integrate that well. Just as you feel that you have the tool that does the job the way you want it to do, along come the next challenge and you find that the best tool for that job doesn’t co-operate with the previous one.
This over-complicates things. Eclipse should be controlled by a body that decides based on user input which of these free tools out there are the best, and it should make them standard features. Install eclipse base. Then install the J2EE pack, then the GUI pack etc and these should contain the packages you want. Then, after that, you can customise and swop options out. That way we will end up with a MyEclipse that is free.
Netbeans is simple, easy to use, took 10 minutes to configure, and until Eclipse changes their ways will remain my choice, even though I do believe that Eclipse is more powerful IF YOU KNOW WHAT TO USE.
My two cents 🙂