[clue-tech] Eclipse: What are people using it for

[Sean LeBlanc]

On 06-01 15:47, Ed wrote:
> I've started using eclipse for a bit of Java development, but I've
> discovered it has pluggins for Perl, C/C++, PHP...
> 
> I'm just learning how to use it, but it seems to be the "greatest
> thing since sliced bread" (as my dear departed Ma used to say)
> 
> ...I'd say it's the greatest thing since Emacs...
> 
> My apologies if this is one of those religious war starters, but I'm
> curious how many people have become eclipse fans and ditched their
> other ide's. As I said, I've just started using it so maybe it has
> it's deficiencies. If so, what are they?

I've been using it for about 3 years now. I really liked the refactoring and
quick fix for Java. I use it for Java, mostly and the associated files
surrounding it (actually I bought MyClipse subscription for next 2 years so
I use it for genning Hibernate files, for example). I still fire up Emacs
for editing other stuff like .NET files or XML or tweaking Spring &
Hibernate files by hand. I also fire up VIM.

We did "standardize" about a year ago on IntelliJ for our IDE, and it seemed
to highlight just how much Eclipse can sometimes be sluggish. However,
IntelliJ does not have the autobuild feature that Eclipse now has turned on
by default, and so I never really moved over to IntelliJ. Other than being a
bit snappier, I could not find any real reason to plunk down $450 or
whatever for IntelliJ, although I know many Java developers swear by it. I
think many were won over when IntelliJ used to be the only that provided
refactoring, but since Eclipse and NetBeans have provided those as well for
some time, at least the ones most people actually use, it's no longer a
discerning factor to those of us latecomers to IntelliJ.

As you can see above, I use both Emacs and VIM, so I think I tried to give
IntelliJ a chance, especially since there was such the buzz about it. I too
find religious wars useless, but not having the autobuild really was
irritating me. I've installed and checked out NetBeans as well since it has
the Matisse stuff in there and I was also intrigued since it uses Ant
directly to define project instead of doing the proprietary def that other
IDEs do, but haven't switched yet. 

One thing that Emacs has that I'm not aware if Eclipse can do - a path to
getting a Lisp environment. I'm currently trying to learn Lisp (in fits and
starts) and one of the how-tos has you set it up in Emacs. Not sure how
you'd do this in Eclipse. Maybe it's possible, which would be nice...having
some of the more GUI-ish crutches at the outset can be nice for learning a
language...


-- 
Sean LeBlanc:seanleblanc at comcast.net  
http://sean-leblanc.blogspot.com/
An honest tale speeds best being plainly told. 
-William Shakespeare, "Henry VI"