Eclipse vs. IDEA - Making the Switch
January 16th, 2006 by Mathias MeyerOkay, I admit it: I’m a switcher.
I’ve been using Eclipse as a Java IDE pretty much from the beginning of my Java developing days. Well, apart from the time I developed Java stored procedures for Oracle. It was and still is a good IDE. But I remember my boss constantly telling about how great IDEA is, and that it’s making the developer more productive with a lot of little details which are hard to describe but must be experienced. Being as stubborn as I am I didn’t really believe it. I gave IDEA a look a while ago and left it at that. Then finally I had some time to get over myself and have a decent and objective look at it and to really spend some time exploring its features. And soon I was hooked. Man, what a great IDE. After a while I could really see what my boss was trying to tell me. You can’t blame a particular feature, but you really have to consider those niceties that make developer live just a little bit more productive. Together they add up, so that in the end, it really can boost your productivity. You even tend to forget the argument about the huge amount of Eclipse plug-ins. For web and J2EE development, you won’t need any. Well, except for web services. Some stuff is very different from Eclipse, but you get used to it, because most of it turns out to make you slap on the forehead and ask yourself, why nobody thought of it that way before.
I wrote about open source and the IDE market a while ago, and maybe it’s time to think again. A colleague of mine put it that way: If a particular technology is to be pictured as an iceberg, then as a vendor you can only earn money, if you’re on top of the iceberg. From time to time an iceberg will melt, and it’s close to impossible to earn money with it. If you’re lucky, there’s a little ice-cube called niche market floating about, but that’s about it. An interesting metaphor which in my opinion fits perfectly into the IDE market. IDEA is definitely top-notch in its market. The free competition is fierce, but there’s always room for someone who likes to think about a specific task that needs to be done by most developers, and how to do it right, fast and without hassle. Eclipse picked up a lot of IDEA’s features, and they’re definitely on the run (being pushed by IBM and all), but we’ll see how it turns out in the end. And no, I won’t forget to mention NetBeans which has made some very good progress since I last gave it a horribly disappointing shot more than two years ago. With version 5.0 coming up, the Java IDE market is gaining some momentum. It’s gonna be interesting to see what’s coming for the Java IDEs.
If you’re one of these people who put free cost above time and money gained a small investment, you should give IDEA a try. It’s a great IDE made by people who care about getting things done. It didn’t win the Java Developer Journal Reader’s Choice award for best Java IDE for nothing.
Technorati Tags: java, development, ide, idea, eclipse
January 16th, 2006 at 9:58 pm
Even though I’m one of the guys who would make people switch to IDEA, I wouldn’t give up on the open market just yet. When Eclipse lost it’s value in my eyes some time ago, going for IDEA was just the only logical option - It was way better. However, good things don’t come cheap :)
That said, I suggest you try the new NetBeans. I wrote a few comparisons on my site, you might find them interesting.
January 16th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
I actually did try it, that’s why I said that it made some very good progress. NetBeans definitely found its way back into the wider market, and that’s something respectable. Regarding Eclipse: it’s still a joy to use (team support comes to mind), and will most certainly catch up on IDEA in some why. But if IDEA can keep its edge, who knows what’s gonna happen ;)
Cheers, Mathias
January 17th, 2006 at 7:55 am
I guess I did miss those lines about NetBeans. It actually has, and it seems the coming version is going to be a hit in the free IDE community.
About IDEA: Did you see the roadmap for Demetra?
January 17th, 2006 at 10:12 am
Yes, I did. Impressive in the way that they still keep attention to those little things. They’re not actually targeting for many many new features, but for a good mixture of new features and productivity improvements. Admirable ;)
Cheers, Mathias
January 19th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
Well, that’s IDEA for you - Their IDE might not be the best looking, but it sure give you the productivity boost no other IDE can give you today, for any language.
January 23rd, 2006 at 10:46 pm
Two points for Eclipse
March 29th, 2006 at 4:53 pm
[…] I just read this blog entry about switching from Eclipse to Idea, and I fully agree with the author. Alas, I’m not really qualified to comment on that, since it has been nearly three years since I actually worked with Idea. Having changed my job, of necessity I also changed the IDE I’m working with, so now I’m stuck with Eclipse. And since then I wonder why Eclipse has to think quite some time to find all references to a private variable (no, I’m not talking of classes with 10,000 lines of code ) … I still remember Idea favourably — at that time it was already better than Eclipse is now. […]
August 30th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
great post and nice blog !
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