Development IDEs
By Anthony Mattas
When I started programming, I liked using C and wrote my code with simple tools like Vim. But during my internship, I found that a basic text editor wasn’t very efficient for Java development compared to a full IDE. Since I didn’t know much about IDEs, I chose MyEclipse because my coworkers used it.
MyEclipse is built on Eclipse and comes with many plugins. When I first used it, it was the only IDE that fully supported JEE5. But over time, MyEclipse has become bloated. Now it’s a 441MB download and has gotten pretty buggy. I’m not sure if that’s because I’m on a 64-bit system, but that shouldn’t matter much for Java. Along with these performance issues, my coworkers have shared a few thoughts:
- Most people who use Eclipse probably wouldn’t choose it if they had to pay the same license fees as other IDEs like Microsoft Visual Studio, IBM WebSphere, or IntelliJ IDEA. It’s better to pick your IDE based on how well it helps you work, not just on price.
- No matter how skilled you are with a pocket knife, a chainsaw will always finish the job faster. In the same way, using VIM for a big, complex project isn’t as practical as using a full-featured IDE.
That’s why I’m taking some time to look at all my options before choosing an IDE for my next big project.
Category: Development
Comments (1)
Sign in to join the conversation
Just remember that your projects will be stored in a manner specific to that IDE and your peers will require knowledge of that specific setup in order to maintain your applications down the road.
A very good point, which I also made as well at one point and was told there is no reason to check all the IDE artifacts in, just check in your Ant script, and applicable source files.