A Java web developer takes a look at the Java IDE landscape and examines the major offerings. IntelliJ IDEA comes out on top, hands down, according to his measurements, and he includes a detailed review.
If you Google for "best
Java web IDE hands down" you will end up with tens of thousands of results that
include praises for every integrated development environment (IDE) out there.
Everyone seems to have his or her favorite, whether it’s a simple text editor
or a memory-hogging, state-of-the-art, does-all-my-coding-for-me IDE.
This review’s objective
is to present you with concrete information on how you can increase developer
efficiency and improve code quality when developing web applications by using
the appropriate IDE. Which one will it be?
What is an IDE? A Quick Overview
An IDE is an application
comprised of tools that benefits software development. Most IDEs are comprised
of tools that:
- Allow you to edit your source code
- Automate repetitive tasks
- Compile code
- Highlight code syntax in Java Class files
- Provide code-completion as you type
- Browse Class structures
- Reformat code
- View JavaDocs
More sophisticated IDEs have enhanced tools that:
- Check code for errors as you type
- Highlight code syntax in JSP, XML and J2EE files
- Automatically create Classes, Methods, and Properties
- Integrate with source code repositories, like CVS
- Integrate with web application servers, like Apache Tomcat
- Integrate with build utilities, like Apache Ant
- Refactor code
- Visually debug code
Some
IDEs also have plug-ins that allow third-party developers to extend the
capability of the IDE.
Introduction to the Various Products
There
are five applications that come to mind when answering that
question "What editor do you use for coding?" While some of these products are
well established, others are gaining momentum.
To
be fair, here’s a brief snippet from each of their web sites:
Eclipse – "Eclipse is a kind of universal tool
platform – an open extensible IDE for anything and nothing in
particular…"
IntelliJ IDEA – "IntelliJ IDEA is
an intelligent JAVA IDE intensely focused on developer productivity."
JBuilder – "Accelerate your Java development with
Borland JBuilder the leading cross-platform environment for building
industrial-strength enterprise Java applications."
JEdit – "JEdit is a mature and well-designed
programmer’s text editor."
NetBeans – "Develop cross-platform desktop, mobile
and web applications based on industry standards utilizing the latest
technologies with our full-featured integrated development environment for Java
Software Developers."
Feature Matrix
Despite
what the web sites tell you, if you take a look at the web developer IDE
features in a matrix, you will see that there is a big difference between them.
| Feature | Eclipse 3.0 |
IntelliJ IDEA 4.5 |
JBuilder 2005 |
JEdit 4.2 |
NetBeans 4.0 |
| JSP Syntax Coloring |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| JSP Code Completion |
Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| JSP Real-time Code Warnings |
Yes | ||||
| JSP Precompilation Errors |
Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tomcat Support |
Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Tag Library Editor |
Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Ant Support | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Download Size (approx) | 23 Mb | 33 Mb | 453 Mb | 2 Mb | 76 Mb |
What Web Developers Must Look For — a Critical Comparison
While it looks like you could go with IntelliJ, NetBeans or JBuilder, let’s take a
closer look at actually using the application for web development.
| Usability | Eclipse 3.0 |
IntelliJ IDEA 4.5 |
JBuilder 2005 |
JEdit 4.2 |
NetBeans 4.0 |
| Responsive at all times | Yes | Yes | |||
| Quick start with existing code | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| JSP real-time validation | Yes | ||||
| Top-notch CVS integration | Yes |
- Choose an IDE that doesn’t require lots of system resources.
You want to watch out for IDEs that are
developed primarily for Java GUI applications and tend to be sluggish in
response when working with web application source code. Even with a
powerful processor, Eclipse, JBuilder and NetBeans are sluggish which can
quickly reduce your overall enjoyment and decrease productivity. This
means that the interface is unresponsive when using menu items, panels and
entering code. IntelliJ IDEA and JEdit maintain a high-level of
responsiveness throughout. - Expect
to quickly be up and running with your existing source code.
When you need to code the last thing you
want is trouble from your IDE. Eclipse, IntelliJ IDEA, JBuilder, and
NetBeans have wizards for creating and importing projects around your
existing files, however some are outright challenging. Eclipse is the
most difficult in this regard and has a steep learning curve. IntelliJ
IDEA, JEdit, and NetBeans can use your existing source code directory
without a tedious import process. - Choose
an IDE that enhances your coding experience with the types of files you
use everyday.
Since web
development includes coding Classes, Servlets, JSPs, Tag-Libs, JavaScript,
Ant build files, SQL scripts, and web application descriptor files, you
will certainly need a tool that can check for errors and highlight the
syntax in those files. IntelliJ IDEA does a superb job of real-time
error-detection and syntax highlighting in JSPs. You will be amazed the
first time you forget to add a tag-lib or import directive and your source
code is immediately highlighted with errors. Other IDEs require that you
manually compile the JSP before you see any errors. - Choose
an IDE that integrates well with your source code repository.
This one is critical. Make sure you can
quickly and intuitively checkout code, update code and compare code. CVS
is a popular choice for software development, so I’ll use that as an
example. In NetBeans trying to configure "External" and "Internal" CVS
commands is confusing while IntelliJ incorporates a first-class CVS utility
that is tightly integrated. Merging and comparing hundreds of files in a
single session becomes extremely rewarding because it’s so easy to do.
A Clear Choice
After continually
evaluating the various products and being frustrated with the feature-set for
Java web applications, it’s a pleasure to have come across IntelliJ IDEA.
Here’s what makes
IntelliJ IDEA so exciting:
- Working with existing code is
quick and painless since the IDE is very responsive and uses existing source
directories - CVS integration is highly
accessible and more sophisticated than the other implementations; you will no
longer need to switch back and forth between the IDE and a dedicated CVS client
for complex merging - Code is immediately analyzed
every time a file is opened and the IDE gives prompt indication of warnings,
errors and suggestions even in JSPs - Ant scripts can be mapped to
your project and executed in the background - IntelliJ IDEA is easy to
install and works on any Java platform, including Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows,
allowing you to change platforms as necessary
It’s also the little
things and the attention to detail that will make you more efficient. Here’s
what I like best:
- As you work locally on a
file, IntelliJ IDEA will display the lines that have changed, inserted or
deleted and allow you to see the previous lines just by moving your cursor over
the indicator of the changed line; this is independent of having access to CVS - If a method that has not been
implemented is specified in code, then a single click will add that method to
the appropriate Class; you’ll know this because IntelliJ IDEA tells you - A copy/paste buffer allows
you to copy all you want, then paste back any copied code using a content
selector - To duplicate a line, block of
text, or whatever you have selected, press a hotkey - Code formatting and import
statement optimization can be done automatically when checking code in or
manually if you prefer - If you decide that a variable
would have been better then repeatedly using an accessor method, let IntelliJ IDEA
introduce a variable and make the necessary changes, with your approval - If you decide to rename a
variable, IntelliJ IDEA can display a list of what code is affected and let you
choose if the variable should be renamed in all of those instances - If you paste a code fragment
that references a Class that has not been imported, a dialog asks if an import
statement should be created, even in JSPs - The colors, icons, panel
layout, and the simplicity of the menus additionally make this IDE worth using
Screenshots
In this screenshot, you
can quickly see a few issues with a JSP that is being worked on. First, the
taglib directive is colored in red because IntelliJ IDEA senses a problem.
Sure enough, the taglib has been entered incorrectly, which results in all uses
of that tag to also be highlighted in red. If you look to the right of the
scrollbar, you can see a visual indication of all the lines that have an issue.
You can cursor over the indicator for a tip as to what’s wrong, then click to
jump to that line.
The next screenshots
show you how easy it is to work with CVS. By selecting the "CVS File View" a
panel opens to show you the files that have been changed, added, or deleted
locally, in a concise, easy to work with view.
A file from the CVS File
View can be selected and shown immediately in the editor, or the file can be
compared to the current repository version as shown in the following
screenshot:
Now you can choose to
visually accept the changes or make additional changes right in the comparison
window. Now that’s easy!
Last Thoughts
If you strive to reduce
repetitive tasks, reduce maintenance time, and improve code quality, then make
sure you choose the right tool for the job. For web development, the right
tool is IntelliJ IDEA. I’m so impressed with the productivity gains that it’s
what my development team will be using from now on.
To try JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA you can download it from the
http://www.jetbrains.com
website.
About the Author
Matt Rajkowski is the lead software developer and architect for Centric CRM in
Norfolk, VA. He has extensive experience with Java web applications and works
in a distributed team environment on multiple platforms. He also owns and
develops
http://www.teamelements.com.
You can usually find
him in the discussion forums at
http://www.centriccrm.com.
I agree completly.
Tools like JBuilder are not very nice to work with, Netbeans is okay, but compared to IntelliJ they are not very good.
A shame tools like Visual Studio for other languages are also bad compared to IntelliJ.
While I don’t consider IntelliJ IDEA to be a bad IDE, however, Eclipse is … much much more powerfull. The biggest complaint the guy had about Eclipse was the lack of a JSP editor. Well, if you search a little for that plugin, you will find it.
CVS management in Eclipse is the best I’ve seen.
I’ve tried once ItelliJ IDEA, for about … 30 minutes. Gave up. No, that thing might be good for you, but for me Eclipse is better. Much much better. And free
.
After my 30 minutes IntelliJ experience, I can tell you, that I will never, ever , touch that IDE. Better off with vi instead.
I really like NetBeans as a Java IDE, but what about JDeveloper?. I know it is thightly integrated with Oracle Database and iAS, but as a Java IDE is excelent.
While I actually prefer IDEA, I find myself using Eclipse a lot because there are just so many plugins. If you want to use a framework for web development such as Tapestry (much easyer than JSP/Servlets/Struts), then you can get Spindle. It also looks like Hibernate/JBoss primarily support Eclipse.
On many projects you come across code in C/C++/Python/Perl/PHP etc, and all have plugins for Eclipse. There are also more generic plugins eg to create regular expressions.
I find a bit strange that the authors puts speed on the side of IDEA. It is no faster than Eclipse (on windows).
But yes, IDEA on it’s own is better than Eclipse on it’s own.
Wow… It’s been some time since I’ve seen such a badly done review. The author doesn’t even try to hide any kind of bias.
Come on… concentrating on a subset of development work (JSP? Since when is writing JSP the only thing Java devs do?) that is fully supported by IntelliJ… seriously OSNews folks: you could have charged the guy some cash for that advertisment.
Oh… and BTW: Since when does Eclipse not have a”Top Notch CVS integration”? It’s the best CVS client I’ve ever used (I know CVS CLI, Jcvs, WinCVS, and those aren’t close).
I’m not even going to comment on the “Responsive at all times” (Eclipse is snappy all the time), and “Quick start with existing code” (WTF is that supposed to mean anyway?).
Seriously, dear author, for a future review I suggest the following checkbox categories “Is a product from Jetbrain”, “Is this IDE called IDEA” and “Does this IDE suffer from Eclipse envy” (of course, Eclipse will get a N/A on that one).
This is nothing more than a comercial
This guy really dislikes Eclipse. If you look at the article you get the impression that Eclipse is the worst editor among the ones he mentions. This article is so biased that its not even funny.
As you say the CVS integration is great. The same can be said for subversion and clearcase. It is extremely fast to work with even though it may start a little slow, but so what most people do that once a day. Once up and running it is extremely fast.
The fact that Eclipse is a generic tool is also an enormeous advantage. I can use the same environment regardless if I program in C/C++, perl, python, or php, jsp,…
Hello, I just wanted to say thanks for reading the article. There are some of us that develop web applications (servlets/jsps/mvc) all the time and I found the various products lacking in this regard — although they are exceptional for other uses.
I’m in no way affiliated with JetBrains, but I have to give their developers credit for their hard work. That’s all.
– Matt
The comparison matrix is well choosen to highlight the abilities of one IDE. Why does it focus on only one aspect of Java JSP? The introduction talks about other aspects but they are obviously ignored later on.
The acticle probably should have been titled why I like IntelliJ IDEA and not Eclipse.
The author seems to ignore the fact that Eclipse is made up of plugins. What he has tested seems to be the naked installation. All of the features ‘advertised’ as not available for Eclipse are available as plugins. I highly doubt he even looked at the product properly since I am wondering what he meant by the “steap learning curve” when it comes to migrating a project from another IDE to Eclipse.
“After continually evaluating the various products…”. Yeah, right
Cheap little me just check the website and this intelliJ costs “just” 249 dollars…hmm I’ll stick with the free Eclipse.
<skip me>
I agree that the article disregards all the incredible good visions that are bundled in Eclipse (think support of dozens of companies, think extensibility, think useable for just about anything you can imagine -> fat client applications build on Eclipse…).
He really made a lot of effort to sell his opinion though…
(perhaps he’s too lazy to learn another IDE, and wants the world to change?)
</skip me>
Hi there
I have never worked with Eclipse, but just downloaded it to see if it is actually any good compared to IntelliJ.
I have a few question about the usage of Eclipse.
Hopefully you can help.
How do i set up the style of indentation ?
Is it possible to let ‘sout’ follow by tab change into ‘System.out.prinlt(“”); and put the cursor between “”
Can Eclipse automatically create the imports needed to compile the code ? So when i make ‘List list;’ it will suggest to import ‘System.util.List’ ?`
My first impression is very nice.
you should check out M7 from Nitrox http://www.m7.com
it is amazing….
> How do I set up the style of indentation?
Preferences -> Java -> Code Style
> Is it possible to let ‘sout’ follow by tab change into ‘System.out.prinlt(“”); and put the cursor between “”
Yes, the standard template is sysout anyway. Oh, then go to Preferences -> Java -> Editor -> Templates to see the others.
>Can Eclipse automatically create the imports needed to compile the code
Yes, it does it on your back if you autocomplete the name of the class, or just press CTRL – MAIUS – O to add all the missing imports.
If you think it’s nice, try to write code without declaring class fields, wait for the quick fix marker to appear, CTRL – 1 and voila’, the missing field is created. The same goes for a method call for a method that still does not exists and for many other things… Quick fix is the Eclipse feature I like the most.
I got to the feature matrix, and thought “this guy is fantasizing now…”. Does he know about Eclipse plugins? If not, he didn’t do his homework. If so, he’s being disengenous to his audience by not mentioning them.
There are multiple pluggins that add support for all of the *missing* features he lists. Nuts.
Sounds like the author started out with what he liked about IntelliJ, and compared the others based on that.
I liked the screenshots, though. I could care less, I dislike Java anyway
Don’t trust them, they’re mostly useless anyway. Who wants to spend hours faffing about getting plugins installed for things that should work out of the box? Who wants to trust random third party developers for features that should be in the main product, not add-on hacks? Who wants a product that has the poor integration that plugin-based systems have, each of its main features being designed completely without regard for each other? Only eclipse apologists. Intellij is years ahead. Eclipse needs many more features, well integrated, in the base distribution, and far less reliance on the silly plugins concept, which only puts any professional off.
I don’t think this article was at all the travesty some of you appear to. I’m happy to accept that the review was based on an “out of the box” (so to speak) installation of all the products, and if that’s the case Eclipse does come out quite badly for anyone doing web-based development.
I’m all for opensource (I use Eclipse with the EPIC plugin for my perl coding), and IDEA isn’t perfect, but I’ve got to say my experiences with it, IDEA is a pretty sweet IDE.
BTW, there seems to be a fair amount of the pot calling the kettle black here in the comment stalls…
Wow, man, the guys before me hit it on head! This review is nothing but an ad.
small and fast (i find eclipse a bit.. overly heavy in the back rear side parts)
I don’t do that much java these days – but judging from some other parts of jEdit I’d wager that the shown feature matrix for jEdit needs quite a bit of feature adding.
jEdit is one of very few java-apps that I can’t live without (other ones are for gaming – go/chess/poker)
The eclipse project was meant to be a generic tool to be used in many development situations. If you added all of the tools up front, that would be one massive peice of bloatware.
I love the plugin concept. It’s easy to customize the work environment to how the programmer actually wants to use it. Eclipse has a good set of docs to show how to write plugins, and many of the plugins are open source, so if you want to tweak it, you can.
Basically the only two plugins that I install to get working with my java webapp is the TomcatPlugin and XMLBuddy. Everything else works fantastically.
-pojo
it’s sad, this is THE worst article I’ve read yet on OSNEWS and that’s saying a lot. As IF Java developers ONLY do JSP. As if Eclipse doesn’t have tons of plugins and work beautifully with CVS. Eclipse is a VERY good IDE and this guy pretends it sucks.
Thanks for the tips.
I must say, Eclipse sure reminds me alot of IntelliJ, i will for sure try it the next time i start a new project.
p.s. Where to find plugins, for PHP, file transfer over SCP and more ?
First, I was an IntelliJ IDEA user until only about a month or so ago. I’d bought it with my own money, and felt it was well worth it. However, I’ve now switched to Eclipse.
First, don’t let the cost thing get in your way, unless it really is a factor for you. If you work for a paying software company, they hopefully would have no problem buying you IDEA if that’s what you chose. Now back to the topic at hand…
Why did I switch? IDEA is excellent, I do agree. However, this review is so poor in how it compares Eclipse. Sheesh, spend the 5 whole minutes it’ll take you to download MyEclipse or similar, and you’ll have all the JSP love, etc. We don’t do much with JSP (we use Velocity), so I can’t comment as deeply on that, but still, to say Eclipse doesn’t do any of the things in that feature matrix, well, sure out of the box it doesn’t, but come on. That’s not the point of Eclipse, it’s a plug-in based system, and has much power because of that. For example, you can edit just about anything using it, unlike with IDEA where you’re pretty much only going to work in a Java world and related world (so XML, HTML, JSP, etc., but forget say Ruby or Python).
Next, I can’t agree more that you should pick these based on your own needs. For example, we use Perforce instead of CVS. The Perforce plug-in for Eclipse is just stunning. I do almost everything with it, and furthermore, it’s better than any other IDE P4 integration due to the tight integration with refactoring abilities, and also the simple fact that it is smart about when it needs to automatically check out a file for you (this is a huge diff between CVS (where files are always unlocked (well, by default), and P4 where you have to explicitly check files out to work on them). This alone would get me to switch to Eclipse from IDEA.
Again, can’t stress the plug-in thing enough. There are lots for IDEA as well, but not the variety and strength of which there are for Eclipse.
And an interesting bit. The review author shows screenshots from MacOS X. I find that Eclipse now runs better than OSX than IDEA does. It’s a tight race here, but Eclipse seems better to me these days (I haven’t really tried IDEA 4.5 signficantly on OSX yet, so maybe that’s improved).
Anyway, to me, it boils down to Eclipse or IDEA. JEdit is nowhere near as powerful, and while Netbeans is improving, it’s not there yet. JBuilder is just outdated IMHO. So, do your own comparison and figure out what works best for you (not that the author wasn’t, but don’t be as silly and not bother to at least look at all the Eclipse plugins, and in particular MyEclipse as an easy route). Have fun.
This guy isn’t the only one who doesn’t like Eclipse and loves IDEA. Even if you completely ignore JSP, IDEA is still better than Eclipse. Any one who doesn’t agree hasn’t used IDEA long enough, correctly, or went in already knowing they wouldn’t like it. I would have appreciated more comparisons between the different IDEs instead of mostly IDEA loving, but I have no doubt in my mind that IDEA would have won no matter what comparisons were made.
> How do i set up the style of indentation ?
Go to the Preferences, and look at Java/CodeStyle; there you can change some stuff, or you can customize one of the 2 styles defined there (just add a new style, and modify it; I just discovered that that offers a whole lot of ofptions);
>Is it possible to let ‘sout’ follow by tab change into >’System.out.prinlt(“”); and put the cursor between “”
That’s supported by the template functionality; for System.out, you type “sysout”, followd by a blank, which will turn into what you want (if it doesn’t, you should look at the templating settings, and check if it’s on).
BTW: type “for” followed by ctrl-space, which will offer templates for iterating over arrays, collections,… and more. This also works for lots of other stuff.
>Can Eclipse automatically create the imports needed to >compile the code ?
Yes, ctrl-O (that’s the letter O); You just type your code, as as soon as the editor complains about a class name not being know, just hit ctrl-O and it will update the imports (if there are conflicts, a dialog pops up and allows you to decide which class).
>There are some of us that develop web applications
>(servlets/jsps/mvc) all the time and I found the various
>products lacking in this regard — although they are
>exceptional for other uses.
Fair enough; I do agree that Eclipse doesn’t come with much support for J2EE (JSP,…) out-of-the-box. But there are all kinds of Plugins and Plugin-packages that provide that (I don’t how how far the Eclipse Webtools project is, but that is supposed to provide good support for that in one package).
Whether that should be in the default package… well, that is already full of features and about 90 MBs… installing Plugins is really trivial. And if you don’t want to evaluate Plugins, there are already several Eclipse distributions for a small fee, that deliver Eclipse with loads of Plugins pre-installed AND (more importantly) tested for incompatibilities and other problems.
When it comes to the actual programming I always end up using good old VI.
I tried Eclipse and NetBeans. Don’t like to use them to code, but they’re handy for debugging.
Although I haven’t explored much those IDE’s features besides the debugging, what I hear is that they’re both great dev tools. And they’re both free, wich is a plus.
> p.s. Where to find plugins, for PHP, file transfer over SCP > and more ?
I use this one for PHP:
http://www.phpeclipse.de
I’ve worked with both Eclipse and Idea for a long period of time. I’m even working with Websphere Application Developer which can be considered the “pumped up” version of Eclipse and includes UML class design, database design, profiling … just to say what the power of Eclipse is if you have the right plugins. And if you don’t want to pay IBM, and you don’t want to wait for the webtools project, you just have to “unzip” (yes, you only have to do this!) some free plugins (lomboz, jfacedbc) to mimic the Websphere environment without spending money.
Both ides are great for the java developer (junior and senior): i think it’s more a personal question to choose one instead of another …
I prefer Eclise since i can write a plugin in minutes, and i prefer Idea since i don’t have problems with SWT under non-windows machines.
download size of eclipse : 23MB :-))))
this guy try the eclipse plateform WITHOUT java developpement tools !!!! (ftp://sunsite.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/pub/mirror/eclipse/R-3.0.1…)
i’ll can’t help laughing for the night o/
I think the best of the breed was not included so the article is pretty much redundant. Sorry for the harsh comment, but be fair!
I can be more productive with vi.
I was once a hardcore vi user, but I found that it was masochistic when working on a large Java projects. Vi was wonderful when all you had to edit were a few shell or perl scripts. Using an IDE like Eclipse buys you more in the way of refactoring tools than hard core text editing.
I still have VI as an option in eclipse. If I want to edit a file using vi, I close it and reopen using “System Editor”.
My favorite “Text” editor of all time is still BBEdit on Macintosh. You can hot-key just about any type of script as on selected text as a filter. I had all kinds of interesting macros written in perl.
IDEA is a very good IDE but it appears Eclipse is slowly eating away it’s base. Our office was a heavy IDEA shop before I arrived there 8 months ago. Now about 90% of the folks there have switched to Eclipse. Eclipse 3.0 addressed many of their concerns.
To enable auto-complete in JSP in Eclipse, I use Lomboz. It also checks error in your JSP code.
http://www.objectlearn.com/index.jsp
Another useful plugin for JSP. You can open a .java or an included file with a right-click.
http://andrei.gmxhome.de/anyedit/
Finally, a tomcat plugin that works well :
http://www.sysdeo.com/eclipse/tomcatPlugin.html
With all these, you can upgrade Eclipse with ease.
Eclipse is no more than a good base for IBM products… If you have the money, then check out IBM Rational Application Developer (IBM RAD). IBM RAD is the new version of Websphere Studio Application Developer. This is Eclipse 3.0 plus plugins required for J2EE development (support for J2EE 1.2/1.3/1.4). It even supports xdoclet coding!!! I have downloaded the trial from IBM and it is amazing. If you like eclipse, you will fall in love with IBM RAD!!!.
This article seems a little biased to me. First of all, the “feature matrix” -imho- doesn’t focus on what a programmer really needs and looks for, but on what can IntelliJ Idea can do. Second, the last page only shows IntelliJ screenshots. A decent review should have shown screenshots from every ide reviewed.
I personally prefer NetBeans, and i am really used to it. There are some stuff that annoy me about the ide, but it is really evolving good and it is really promising.
I have to use JDeveloper 10g at work, and i have to say that every time i press a key, i wonder what problem it will come up with. I only liked that component that is shown in the “About JDeveloper” box. It shows errors for no reason and it doesn’t have any idea about HTML at all, i guess it parses the dtd’s wrong..
And for the “glorious” IntelliJ IDEA. I used it straight for 30 days, and most of the “features” only distracted me. I didn’t like it. And i gave it an objective try. Sorry. But it doesn’t do magic, as this article supposes.
Nice ad campaign though. Nice place to support your software.
Netbeans is 76 MB??????? C’mon, don’t download Netbeans from java.sun.com. You can download Netbeans without java sdk from netbeans.org. The size is about 40 MB.
Although i am a long time IntelliJ IDEA user, and i also believe it is the best IDE around, the comparison is not really fair. i say Eclipse comes pretty close to the IDEA, especially with plug-in support it may surpass in some areas, like CVS integration. Netbeans also has strong areas, like UI designer.. nevertheless author was not really fair IMHO.
Drat, I was hoping for a nice review of each of the IDEs to post links to java forums.
Guess not then.
I think the best of the breed was not included so the article is pretty much redundant. Sorry for the harsh comment, but be fair!
JDeveloper is nice the only problem is that it is that I can’t figure out how to set code formatting style to the standards we (and about 99% of all other java developers) use.
We would like:
if(…){
…;
}else{
…;
}
while JDeveloper insists on:
if(..)
{
…
}
else
{
…
}
If that was possible, I would consider it for Java development. If you do more than Java development Eclipse is probably the tool, the number of plugins for JDeveloper is much less. Eclipse is really the next generation of Emacs swiss knife software development tool.
Another thing to take into account is the licenseing Eclipse is free for all kinds of use while JDeveloper is not.
I really think netbeans is decent. It may not have as many plugins as the eclipse platform but it works for me. I created a webapp and the integration with the bundled tomcat and then a mysql dbase was very simple. I enjoy using it since it seems to read my mind sorta…code completion syntax corrections refactoring. I have used textpad for a long time on xp and vi or emacs when using linux. So changing to an IDE was a pleasant surprise for me. I went to an IDE because m software engineering class project seemed like a good place to use it. I dont know why you guys say netbeans is so bad. It takes around 15 seconds to start up on my machine after a boot and when it is up and runnign the UI and everything else is blazing fast. Granted that I have yet to use all the features and I am not coding up anything with a 1000 files or anything but for me the UI and the IDE itself is very fast. Now I have not used Eclipse so I am not going to say anything bad about it. From what i have heard it is THE IDE to have and I am going to play with it pretty soon. The plugin concept is pretty cool too. MY only concern would be compatibility and how on plugin would talk to another. Another interesting feature I consider to b a plus for Eclipse over Netbeans would be the fact that Netbeans uses swing components whereas Eclipse uses lightweight components if I am not mistaken. I have not used IDEA so I cannot comment about that. My dad uses JDeveloper and IDEA and he swears by the both of those IDEs but he prefers JDeveloper because of all its features. I just dont understand why people have negative comments about Netbeans. I am curious.
I don’t mind about someone liking a particular choice when writing a comparison. We’re all human, we all have our preferences. (Mine: No IDE. SciTE + some macros + a couple of tools)
The problem with this article is that it doesn’t even try. There’s no comparison at all. You just take this matrix to show the stuff that you like about IDEA and that others (you say) do not provide. I won’t even argue if they do or don’t, but then you simply forget any intention to compare the different IDEs and focus on presenting IDEA.
Nothing’s wrong with that if that’s want you want, but don’t try to present it as a comparison.
I just dont understand why people have negative comments about Netbeans. I am curious.
To me it is about usability. There are far too many menus in no particular order in Netbeans. If you close windows etc it is often hard to find out how to reopen them. All of that is of course things that you get used to after a while.
The most important difference to Eclipse, my preferred choise of IDE, is that in Eclips you are thinking in terms of projects, packages, classes, methods and attributes and not in terms of java source files.
E.g you select a mehod in the class outline view then the code of that method is shown in the editor window, not the whole java file.
CVS integration is also one of the strong points, it includes connections over ssh without any extra ad on software. Especially important if you use windows, that normally doesn’t have any ssh software installed by default.
The integration with JUnit is better. Errors found is often just a click or two away. There are also good free plugins for integration with jcoverage.
The fact that it is good for more than java is also an important factor.
Since when writing JSP has been much need for IDE? Can you please change the title of the article to “Choosing the Right IDE for JSP”. The review has nothing to do with good IDE for Java programming.
yes, IDEA is an awesome IDE, but so is Eclipse. It is much more advanced that IDEA, and it’s open source, which is a huge plus.
the review is biased and not objective. more like a commercial.
phew.
JDeveloper is nice the only problem is that it is that I can’t figure out how to set code formatting style to the standards we (and about 99% of all other java developers) use.
If that was possible, I would consider it for Java development.
Did you even look at Tools->Preferences -> Code Editor -> Java? Among many others there’s one strange radio option: Preffered Open Braces: on The Same Line.
Now you have to use it.
If you do more than Java development Eclipse is probably the tool, the number of plugins for JDeveloper is much less.
Jdeveloper has one plugin that you wish for: jalopy. Try it. PMD also sound good.
Eclipse is really the next generation of Emacs swiss knife software development tool.
Hordes of commercial plugins are what makes Eclipse interesting. In professional development you require UML diagrammer, visual editors and some way to extend your platform when nobody else will.
Another thing to take into account is the licenseing Eclipse is free for all kinds of use while JDeveloper is not.
Eclipse offers a base to extend, but if you want to use it professionaly every day you will have to spend some bucks. Even if you write your own plugins think how much does your time cost.
TANSTAAFL[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TANSTAAFL]
Perhaps You need to change the “Preferred Open Brace Style” setting in Preferences -> Java to “On the Same Line”.
Dear Eugenia,
I don´t know if you actually read this article before posting it. I highly appreciate OSNews for its content, I read it daily. But this is a very poor article and it shouldn´t have been published at all.
This guy likes IntelliJ. That is ok with me. Idea is a good IDE. But he clearly shows that he hasn´t even seriously tested the other IDEs. How can he say that JBuilder does not have a top-notch integration with CVS? It does, it makes it easy and quick. It even has integration with Subversion!. And this is just an example.
I’m an IDEA user, and I think IDEA is the best IDE for JAVA (yes, read that again, for JAVA development): period. Having said that, this article didn’t do IDEA much justice, as it is more an advertorial than anything else …
The problem is, many of the people here view IDEs (and technologies) like religions, and “there is no other god but mine” attitude tends to rule, especially among geeky ass nerds who need a place to “belong” (being a geek, I feel your pain).
The article, no doubt, is biased as hell and doesn’t really help or hinder’s IDEA’s case as the BEST IDE; what it DOES do is prove — out of the box, that IDEA IS THE BEST FOR ONE PARTICULAR TYPE OF DEVELOPMENT — which the author clearly states in the beginning, and most of the Eclipse thumpers have failed to take into consideration. However, they do have it right about Eclipse, that, out of the box it’s not much more than a “contain” waiting for some plugins …. but, that’s another argument….
Over all, the article is hogwash, but IDE is still the best Java IDE — pound for pound — even if Eclipse has managed to copy, rip-off, and skeez many of IDEA’s features (don’t worry, IDEA seeminly has borrowed some of Eclipse’s, too)….
Since there’s been so many responses, I’d like to address some of them.
While this article is not particularly a thorough review of IDEs (I could have spent 20 pages doing that), it does get down to the point I’m trying to make.
In some organizations, like the one I belong to, we need products that are easy to install, increase productivity, and can be used by both junior and senior web developers with little training.
No, we don’t code JSPs all day, but we do have to look through them and they are an essential part of the application.
As to why I truncated the comparison table? Well, each of the IDEs does essentially the same thing. I guess it’s how they do it which is more important.
Yes, I know what plug-ins are.
As to why this is on OSNews… I think OSNews is a great resource for learning about many things. I only wish there were more “Success Stories” about the products mentioned here. Instead of ranting, why not create a thoughtful review of your favorite IDE or product and show how it works out for you…
You already knew this article was going to favor IDEA, so why did you read it anyway?
Thanks for the feedback,
Matt
> You already knew this article was going to favor IDEA, so why did you read it anyway?
Well, most of us were probably hoping for a good reason for the conclusion of favoring IDEA. We were probably hoping for an actual comparison, something that can have us also lead to the conclusion that IDEA is the top notcher in the group. Unfortunately, it’s a sales pitch.
According to the blurb, the article “includes a detailed review”. So where are the complete screenshots and features and plugin details of the other IDEs? We only see IDEA.
This is not a review; This is not “How to choose your IDE”.
It´s really a joke. Why doesn´t the author state from start: “Why I prefer IDEA”.
Eclipse is my IDE of choice, as I don´t do much JSP & EJB etc. I use it for a large (simple) Java project, for a PHP project (PHPEclipse works well enough), for XML editing I use the “Initial Contribution to the WTP”.
Why does the author hate Eclipse so much?
And by the way: I think Eclipse is by far the fastest evolving platform. It´s got the strongest third party tools, and is just changing rapidly. Eclipse 1.0 wasn´t very good, Eclipse 2.0 was ok, but Eclipse 3.0 and onwards is simply the best.
Oh other reasons that speak for Eclipse: Support for Velocity, Subversion, FTP, RSS.
You mean http://jdee.sunsite.dk/ ?
Emacs is the answer. Please repeat the question?
Eclipse offers a base to extend, but if you want to use it professionaly every day you will have to spend some bucks. Even if you write your own plugins think how much does your time cost.
Well, it must be something wrong with me since we have managed quit nicely with free tools so far. But sure, there is many commercial tools as well if you like. I just haven’t felt the need for them.
By the way, thanks for enlighten me on the braces on the same line setting. Perhaps I’ll give it one more try some time.
Jdeveloper has one plugin that you wish for: jalopy. Try it. PMD also sound good.
Uhmmm, Jalopy is available for Eclipse just as well. And unfortunately, Jalopy has gone commercial so it isn’t that much of an argument for whichever IDE anymore. See http://jalopy.sourceforge.net.
“I prefer Eclise since i can write a plugin in minutes, and i prefer Idea since i don’t have problems with SWT under non-windows machines.”
So why dont you use Swing or AWT on Eclipse? Nobody forces you to use SWT if you dont like it…
Ciao compatriota
This article was potentially useful to me. I just bought a copy of IDEA, but am still using MyEclipseIDE at work. MyEclipseIDE is an excellent product and the price is such that I don’t need to justify the purchase to my boss when we bring on a new contractor. The reliance on plugins obviously has a downside; a bad plugin can completely wreck your day, and an abandoned plugin you depended on for your project can be an expensive mistake.
Still, Eclipse is a very capable IDE, and doesn’t deserve to be dismissed so early in the review.
An interesting conclusion was that IDEA beat the others in adaptability to existing source code. I can see how an experienced IDEA user could wrap a codebase in the proper project, and its true that many plugins in Eclipse prescribe certain code layouts, but I have tried to use existing projects with both, and I guess if I were objective I’d have to say that neither one does a very good job and both of them took me hours.
The latest NetBeans is probably better at this than IDEA or Eclipse, because of its potential to be completely ant-centered, because it doesn’t have a lot of preconceptions about CVS, and because you can always pull down a whole project and quickly set up arbitrary mount points within it.
As far as vi(1) goes, I wouldn’t code in anything else until recently, but I have to say, Java kicked my butt here. Because of the many deeply nested package hierarchies, even ctags couldn’t fix my pain.
What is the author’s affiliation with IntelliJ? This thinly veiled marketing tripe is a pathetic excuse for a review- shame on OSNews for posting it.
free isnt an issue for me. if im using a tool to make money, i want the best, not the cheapest.
idea cant be learned in 30 minutes. ive been using it for about a year now, and i still find new features im not taking advantage of every now and then. there are so many things to speed up your development that they just become second nature. now thats not unique in idea, but its stronger in idea then any other ide ive used. if anything, my biggest beef with it is its weak jsp support.
honestly, havnt used eclipse in quite awhile so i cant really comment on how it is now. when i last used it i was rather impressed, and would have put it well over jbuilder. i used an older version of netbeans sun bought and rebranded as forte in school, that was such a steaming pile of manure i havnt been too interested in giving it a try.
anyways, eclipse is quite a solid ide, but i would rather use vs.net (of course, based on the limited experience ive had in either environment) idea on the other hand outshines anything ive used, i consider it a perk to coding in java.
My problem with IDEA and all Swing apps is that the fonts still look like crap (even Java 1.5)
Cleartype fonts on Eclipse are absolutely gorgeous (obviously, since SWT is native), but the dialog panels and overall interface of it needs some major refactoring. I’ve never been a big fan of the way it handles projects either.
I love vim and have been using it for years for C/C++ coding and messing with config files and such, but I would fire you if you were using vim to code in Java (and we almost had to fire a guy). Besides, there’s a vi plugin for Eclipse and IDEA.
Vim and Emacs are console programs that put up a gui facade and have their place (Emacs is probably great for Lisp programming), but they are not the best environments for Java programming – even with their respective java “plugins”.
This web developer seems to be familiar with IntelliJ only. I doubt he had ever used eclipse for more than 1 hour. check out http://eclipse.org/webtools/index.html for nice plugins to do web dev work.
This one of the worst IDE reviews I’ve ever read. The author has obviosly decided on IDEA before even starting to write the article. He’s obvioulsy alo totally clueless on how to use Eclipse.
I think the author do not really used Eclipse.
enough said, choose a free IDE, that post was almost and advertisement for IntelliJ, whats the link does he work for them or sit on their board?