[jsword-devel] Java IDE

[Adam Thomas]

Hi Troy,

I completely understand what you are saying. When I started my search 
for a good IDE several years ago it was tough. I tried Eclipse and 
NetBeans and didn't like either one. Eclipse felt too generic and 
setting it up was a pain. NetBeans tried to be the Visual Studio of Java 
IDEs, but fell short for many reasons.

Which did I end up choosing? Well, Eclipse won at that time for its 
editing experience. However, NetBeans has come a LONG way over the past 
couple years. I currently still using Eclipse and love it, however I 
might be willing to switch to NetBeans in the future if the right 
features come along.

You'll quickly see that Eclipse is very much like the Debian or 
Slackware Linux distros. They are VERY powerful but require someone who 
doesn't mind tweaking and installing to get things running. On the other 
hand NetBeans is more like Ubuntu or SUSE Linux, which try to do as much 
as possible out of the box so users don't have to be as knowledgeable or 
have to mess with settings as much. My take on it anyway...

So here's the rundown. Eclipse does take a little setup (about 30 - 60 
minutes) to get all the plugins installed and configuration settings 
adjusted to my taste. Eclipse performance out of the box will be 
horrible unless you tweak the JVM heap size and permgen that launches 
Eclipse. You can find tutorials for this online.

 I also needed a good Swing GUI editor and found WindowBuilder Pro by 
Instantiations simply the best available for any IDE. It's 
bi-directional code editing and data-bound component designer is 
unmatched even by Visual Studio standards. IT handles Swing, SWT, and 
GWT with ease.

You want something to "slurp" dependencies into a single jar, then try 
the Eclipse FatJar plugin.

You want Vi bindings for the editor, try the Eclipse Vi plugin, so on 
and so on. There are free plugins and commercial plugins for Eclipse for 
almost anything you could ever imagine. I can promise you that once you 
get Eclipse setup properly and get used to its workflow, you will have a 
very nice IDE. However, that doesn't mean it is the best at everything.

Here are some things that I think NetBeans does better than Eclipse. Out 
of the box experience so new users can simply start writing J2EE 
projects without worrying about Ant scripts, J2EE servers, and other 
aspects. I love the NetBeans startup window that displays recent 
projects, has a live web feed, and has tutorial links. This startup page 
in NetBeans is obviously a rip-off from Visual Studio, but hey, if it 
works why change it? I like that NetBeans uses Swing instead of SWT for 
its RCP. I like that NetBeans always receives the latest technologies 
first since Sun is working on it. How many quality JavaFX or Ruby 
plugins do you see for Eclipse right now?

My biggest complaint about NetBeans is the locked code regions in the 
Swing GUI builder-generated code. Make that thing bi-directional and 
more intelligent (take notes from Window Builder Pro)!!! Last time I 
checked I don't think NetBeans had as many configuration options for the 
editor as Eclipse either.

Again, Eclipse isn't the king of all IDEs, but it currently has 
everything I require from a good IDE. NetBeans is coming along nicely 
and if the current pace is kept, I expect NetBeans usage to exceed 
Eclipse usage in the upcoming years.

Who says you have to use only one IDE? I have NetBeans and Eclipse 
installed on my laptop.

Good luck!

God Bless,
Adam Thomas

Troy A. Griffitts wrote:
> Hey Guys,
>
> Sorry for this slightly off-topic email, but since JBuilder folded 
> I've been lost.
>
> I have tried and tried and TRIED to like Eclipse, but after years of 
> trying, I'm giving up.  My conclusion is that Eclipse barely functions 
> when I finally get all the disparate pieces and tools updated and 
> configured how they're supposed to be.  It's sad.  It's a great 
> concept, but in practice, it does not compare to a commercial tool 
> integrated and packaged by a single organization-- which I fear is the 
> same for our software sometimes.
>
> But anyway, I'll end my rant and reflection at that.
>
> Can anyone suggest a new tool for me to try?  I'm considering 
> NetBeans, only because I know of no others.
>
> Thanks,
>
>     -Troy.
>
> PS.  Usage, and what I miss from JBuilder: JSP editing/debugging, 
> remote edit via scp, database aware swing components, gui wysiwyg 
> swing editing, jar application packaging (dependency slurping to 
> single jar), vi editing!, and of course I'd like to have a nice js 
> editor, but haven't ever seen one in the wild.
>
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