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Java Development: Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA?
Java_Good_COBOL_Bad asks: "For Java development, would most people recommend using Eclipse or IntelliJ IDEA?
I am currently using Eclipse and it took a long time to get the environment set up. I understand that Eclipse is a framework that can be used for many things, not just Java development, but all I really need is an IDE for Java. So, I wonder if Eclipse is more complex than I need.
I have never used IDEA before. Is it more straight-forward? Has anybody here migrated from Eclipse to IDEA? How steep was the learning curve?"
I think his point is that he's still fighting with Eclipse, and is wondering if switching to something simpler might require less effort than continuing with Eclipse is going to demand.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
After downloading the JDK and Eclipse and setting the CLASSPATH and JAVA_HOME vars, all I had to do to get Eclipse running was type ./eclipse. So what's your idea of "a long time?" Why don't you just try IntelliJ and see if you like it? Nobody else's opinion is really going to be much help in a "what's better?" debate anyway.
rooooar
Respectfully, in addition to asking which IDE to use, you should be asking yourself why this is. Particularly if you do not work in soloist isolation, collaborating with a colleague is in your best interests - you should have asked a college with expertise to assist you. If you are not fortunate enough to be in a master-apprentice relationship with a more experienced colleague, you ought at least shift your automatic frame of mind towards the collaboration of a working group. You could later repay with collaborative expertise in a particular subset of specialty you possess. Even in open source projects, such instincts for teaming and efficiency will serve you well. Your question has been good, but it's basis is suggestive an compartmentalized perspective or environment that may be at least as important to ponder as the finer points of IDE efficiencies.
I work with both simultaneously. Both are adequate workspace environments, relatively easy to migrate and setup(*). However, I find it more interesting to redirect to asking if have considered using both IDEs for their strengths, if costs permit. After migrating, I found no need to actually choose between them, and would ask you if your post hides a false framing question, implying a binary choice when other options exist. You need not fully setup a project in an IDE to reap many of the benefits of it's use. You may load a single source file and still perform a fairly broad number of powerful actions. (As other will no doubt point out, the mix of refactorings offered between them varies, it can be pleasing to utilize both for a combined pool of available IDE refactorings.)
With Murphy as my witness, I currently have Eclipse, Visual SlickEdit, NetBeans, and IntelliJ installed. I use Eclipse for a subset of some of it's refactorings, SlickEdit as needed for things such as horizontal column cuts and power-editing macro recording/replay (the other IDEs simply don't provide these features suitably), and IntelliJ for most development. NetBeans I confess to not much using; I've tried JDeveloper on a colleagues box. Such evaluations are useful - an IDE with even one or two favorable unique features easily run on singleton files repays the exploratory time.
That you may not wish the setup costs is a valid point, as is ability level at maintaining familiarity with multiple IDEs, however the counterpoint here about maximizing efficiency by selection and mix of the right tools, and about continual learning, are, I think, valid. In both regards to increased colleague collaboration and avoiding binary choices to build a robust mix of tools, please consider keeping an active mind.
(*) There are some occasional stray bits of migration errata in either direction, but nothing severe. For instance, Eclipse awkwardly roadblocking on, say, encountering a mixed case windows directory vs an all lowercase Java import. That was bad coding by a third party developer, but an awkward case to workaround in Eclipse that IntelliJ handled smoothly. Both are good IDEs, IntelliJ is perhaps a bit smoother and more robust.
"The hottest places in Hell are reserved for those who, in times of moral crisis, preserved their neutrality." -Dante
Eclipse == free
IntelliJ == NOT free
That's enough for me right there.
Is that how you make all your decisions?
No condoms == free
Using condoms == NOT free
Cost/benefits analysis... more than just a buzzword!
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