Re: netbeans - or - Eclipse

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Date: 29 Sep 2004 20:50:54 GMT

Hal Rosser <hmrosser@bellsouth.net>
wrote on Sat, 28 Aug 2004 23:51:01 -0400:
> Inviting comments about the free IDEs Eclipse and Netbeans (only)
> If you are using one of the two - have you tried the other IDE?
> If so - why did you decide against the one.
> (What did you NOT like about netbeans - and what did you LIKE about
> Eclipse?) -or-
> (What did you NOT like about Eclipse - and what did you LIKE about
> netbeans?)
> Did you make the decision - or did your boss?

  I've used most of the major IDEs, including NetBeans. I now use
Eclipse, and I'm unlikely to change again.

  NetBeans is *slow*, and consumes insane amounts of memory as it runs,
especially if you try to use the debugger. Adding more memory and
telling it to use more memory did not help. Beyond that, the editor was
nice (though often lagging a second or more behind my typing!), but the
lack of basic refactoring tools made it almost useless; the only reason
to prefer it to Vim or JEdit would be code completion, and it was often
faster to just keep a browser window open to the javadocs rather than
try using the code completion. The CVS support is inadequate at best,
and just does not work in many setups. The debugger is pathetic; I
haven't seen an IDE with such a weak debugger in over a decade. The UI
also just looks bad. It's not just that it's Metal by default, the
entire multi-window design is a pain to manage. NetBeans is a wonderful
thing for Sun to work on and give away, because it's so bad that it
drives innovation elsewhere in the industry.

  Eclipse, on the other hand, is fast. It uses a lot of memory, but if
you have at least half a gig of RAM, it runs fine. The UI is fast and
responsive and looks and behaves like a proper GTK application on Linux,
and the single window with multiple "perspectives" makes it easy to
manipulate. The editor in 3.1 is still not the most powerful I've ever
seen, but it's hugely improved from 2.x. The refactoring tools work,
and solve a lot of problems. The CVS integration is unbelievably good;
in a team environment, I'd hate to even try any other IDE now. The
debugger works and is responsive; it's not as advanced as I'd like, but
it's tolerable.

  I've heavily used JBuilder, which is superior to NetBeans but is still
very slow. JBuilder's CVS integration is minimal, and doesn't work for
every setup, but it's usually adequate. I'd recommend at least trying
the free version of JBuilder, and there are areas where JBuilder is
ahead of Eclipse. I still prefer Eclipse for speed and for the plugins,
and it's catching up on features rapidly. If you do Swing layout
graphically (which I don't), JBuilder's by far the best IDE on the
market. The debugger is adequate.

  I only briefly tried IDEA; wasn't terribly impressed or appalled,
though it was unpleasantly slow. I love refactoring tools, but IDEA's
few additional refactoring tools over Eclipse are *not* worth $500 to
me. The behavior of the more vocal IDEA fanboys (including their own
developers) really drove me away from spending more time trying it out,
too.

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-- 
  Mark Hughes 
"I think [Robert Heinlein] would take it kindly if we were all to refrain from
 abandoning civilization as a failed experiment that requires too much hard
 work." -_Rah, Rah, RAH!_, by Spider Robinson

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