Eclipsed!

It has been a few months since I downloaded and started using NetBeans and Eclipse for java development. At the end of six months, I have become a big fan of ECLIPSE.

The following are the biggest contributors in turning me into an eclipse fan.

Look and feel: I think this has a lot to do with the default font and color selection. Whatever it is, I prefer the look and feel of eclipse compared to NetBeans or JBuilder.

Responsiveness of the application: One of my biggest gripes about java IDEs was about the responsiveness of the application. I type fast. And after Microsoft Visual C++ IDE, eclipse is the IDE which I used so far, that could match my speed. (I am not denying the fact that there could be other Java IDEs which I haven't tried yet.)

Clearcase Integration: Works well with the clearcase plugin. So you don't have to switch back and forth between the browser and IDE when you have to edit a file that is checked in.

Refactoring support: I never took automatic refactoring seriously until I experimented with the refactoring features available with eclipse. Now, I realize that refactoring code is not at all a headache, especially when you have to handle renaming and re-packaging of classes. The clearcase integration makes it a breeze.

Perspectives - debug, development & java browsing: This is another cool feature. Depending on what you are doing - coding, just browsing the code or debugging - eclipse offers different perspectives, which are nothing but screen layouts whcih display the relavent sub windows. The debug perspecitve provides a debug window with the list of active threads, Variables window which show the currently active variables, an Expression window to evaluate expressions, console, etc.

My job require me to do a lot of code review. The java browsing perspective is ideal for that. Another nice feature I use extensively while reviewing code is the task tags. I define a tag named "CODEREVIEW", and add my code review comment in the code itself at the location I want it. One rebuild will give me a list of these tags in the Tasks list. Copy paste that to another document and code review comments are ready. The person responsible for code review fixes can open it up in eclipse, click through the auto-generated list in eclipse and take care of them.

Remote debugging: This is the feature that helped me a lot. I have to debug applications running on a target, but it is not practical for me to install an IDE and sources on it. I haven't explored this feature in NetBeans. JBuilder gives this feature in the developer version which is highly overpriced.

What is missing in eclipse ? I would say that a UI builder is missing in eclipse. But I don't feel the need for a graphical UI builder even though I have to develop UI based applications.

Why..? I will come to it in my next post...