Best IDE: Eclipse, Netbeans, CodeBlocks, Visual Studio, Others?

Question

Alright, so I've been a web developer using PHP, MySQL, HTML, JavaScript, & CSS for years. During this time I've been using UltraEdit as my development tool.

In the last year I've been branching into other languages and expect to be using C++, Java, and the .NET platform with C# on a regular basis for the years to come.

My Question is two part:

1. What is the best general purpose IDE currently out?

2. If there isn't a single IDE that is awesome with all the languages, what one is best for C++? What one is best for Java? What one is best for .NET?

The general purpose IDEs that I've heard most about are: Eclipse, Netbeans, CodeBlocks, Visual Studio, & UltraEdit Studio. For non-general purpose, I've also used Dev-C++.

My two features I could never live without are:

1. Code Folding
2. Function/method lists

Please let me know why you like whatever IDE you like, and give me some idea of the differences between them.

Thanks!

P.S. My laptop (where I develop) is currently running windows xp. However, I could install Ubuntu, so I'm open to linux programs also.

Answer 1

I'm trying to learn to use VIM as my general purpose lightweight IDE. Other than that I'll use Eclipse and VS depending on the situation.

Answer 2

I currently use Dreamweaver CS4 for all of my web-programming needs. I know it has a hefty price tag, but I can't find anything that's free that has all of the awesome features that it has.

Some of which are

• Integrated FTP support
• Gui interface (optional for CSS/design)
• Many, many more.

Answer 3

On Windows I like using Visual Studio for all my microsoft Tasks (C# or C++) For Java I'm using Eclipse/Net beans

On Linux I like using Eclipse for C++/Java

Answer 4

One critical question is what platform you intend to develop on. Visual Studio, for example, only runs on Windows. Another is what you're targetting: many of Visual Studio's features are specifically for Windows development.

Personally, I prefer several xterms open on Linux, with one for vim, one to run gcc in, and one for gdb. Your mileage may vary.

Answer 5

Notepad++ is also a good choice of text editor , it works with your need , you have add what you want thats why it is lightweight

http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm

Answer 6

Don't know if I would recommend any one editor to span all languages

for .NET I would definitely recommennd Visual Studio for Java I use Eclips for HTML/XML/text I use Visual Studio and I'll add custom intellisense instructions to make life easier if need be.

All in all, go with what will make you most effecitive. I once worked with a guid that did all his coding with a VI editor and compiled using command line - he could code circles around the rest of us in the VI editor but couldn't use Visual Studio to save his life.

Answer 7

When it comes to Java IDEs, you cannot go wrong with IntelliJ. It is not free, but it is just so well done. The layout is incredibly intuitive, the plugins are OK. It is really easy to plugin webservers and etc. This comes from the same people who make ReSharper for Visual Studio.

It has support for other languages, but I have not really utilized that functionality.

Answer 8

I haven't used Code::Blocks yet, but people say it's very good. for Java, I think NetBeans is the best! I memorized many of its shortcuts, and that helps me a lot.

and for less powerful machines, I'm with vim!

Answer 9

Visual Studio 8 is the one IDE to rule them all for C++ on Windows. If you need C++ and Java, or need to run your IDE on other than windows then Eclipse is fine also.

Answer 10

1. Apparently that could be Emacs, but it's not as good on XP out-of-the-box as it is on *nix systems.

2. There isn't a single great IDE for all the languages, anything that tries to do that is going to fail in doing something in particular just right, and also it won't come without bloat.

Best for C++ and .NET: Obviously Visual Studio
Best for Java: Eclipse, and with CDT is good for C++ as well.

UEStudio would be fine but a shame it's got too many features I don't want (e.g. a toolbar for doing web searches!), so I'd use Codelite instead which is lean and powerful.

Answer 11

VIM

Answer 12

Emacs

Answer 13

I've switched from IntelliJ IDEA to Eclipse, but both are very good. IDEA is somewhat bloated, and when something goes wrong (it happens, not very often, but it really does), your only option is delete everything and start from scratch. On the other side, it's very intuitive, and the most used keyboard shortcuts are also the simple ones.

I prefer eclipse, because I can code Java, C++, python, XML and anything else in a single environment. (useful for JNI interfaces, when you need to look at both C++ and Java code without having 2 different IDEs running). It's not always so intuitive, but runs often faster, and it's free.

The big problem (at least for me) in using both Visual Studio and a Java IDE is learning to use different shortcuts in different windows.

Last time I used NetBeans was in 2001, and it was quite good for that time, I don't know if the latest version is still so good as it was.

Answer 14

For .NET, definitely Visual Studio 2008, ideally with Resharper 4.5 installed.

For Java, IntelliJ IDEA is great.

Answer 15

It's a very subjective question - but I'd say Eclipse is probably the most "general purpose" IDE because it is highly customizable and has probably the most comprehensive plug-in ecosystem.

Eclipse also has great multi-language support - the Java tools are probably the most mature but there are plugins for pretty much any language you can think of, right the way from C/C++ to C# to Clojure.

There are also lots of non-language-specific plugins e.g. for XML, version control, project management etc.