eclipse netbeans intelliJ Idea - IDE choice

Question

With Netbeans recent milestones being very aggresive, Have you moved from eclipse to netbeans? This is also to anyone who may be using Ruby? At work, we are currently use eclipse, but many of us run our pet-projects on netbeans? you think netbeans will overtake eclipse?

Answer 1

Without wishing to get into an IDE 'war' ;)

I like Netbeans, it has a better 'feel' than Eclipse or Visual Studio. It feels, to me, like an IDE designed by software engineers, for software engineers. Of course, tastes vary, so expect plenty of similar responses in favor of Eclipse et al.

Netbeans' Java support is wonderful. Both the Netbeans framework (platform) and GUI designer are so well integrated into the software dev 'experience' that producing credible professional software is a pleasure. It relieves me of the nagging grunt-work behind manually creating the visual aspect of my software, allowing me to focus on the underlying software model required to actually do real work.

C/C++ support is fair, but could be better. Integration with gcc & gdb needs to tighten up, but this is an issue that simply requires time to iron out. It is not a show-stopper for me. I use Netbeans for my C/C++ development almost exclusively.

Although "Web 2.0" development is not my 'thing', I am very impressed with the high-quality tools provided for developing the entire web-software stack.

As for which IDE will overtake the other....I think they've both gained significant momentum. Deservedly so. Perhaps down the road, one of them will suffer a 'Borlandesque' collapse in its user-base, but for now there are plenty of people that are enthusiastic about both. They're both winners right now :)

Is that fair and even-handed enough?

Answer 2

As usual, the answer is it depends. And right tool for the right job.

I'm a long time user of Eclipse. I have occasions to do RCP development, as well as some OSGi development. Eclipse is the editor of choice for this sort of work.

I am interested in Netbeans for its tight integration with the "official" java compiler, javac.

Eclipse is missing out on things dependent on the Compiler API, such as Jackpot; and have to play catchup for other compiler features e.g. generics (caught up now), all JSR 223 compliant scripting languages. This is probably why Netbeans is so far ahead with support for Javascript, Ruby etc.

Answer 3

Intellij > all =)

ducks flames

Answer 4

One main selling point to me is the Matisse GUI builder in NetBeans; I've heard that there is a similar project for Eclipse, but I've never figured out Eclipse's plugin system.

I've unfortunately never been able to try IntelliJ.

Answer 5

Have you tried jDeveloper? Data validation, Graphs, Drag and drop.