A constructive debate: Eclipse or NetBeans?  
Author Message
Ville Oikarinen





PostPosted: 2007-10-16 14:45:00 Top

java-programmer, A constructive debate: Eclipse or NetBeans? On Mon, 15 Oct 2007, Jon Harrop wrote:

> > Anyway, I agree partially that Eclipse workspace creation should be
> > easier. I even filed a bug about the fact that you cannot create a fully
> > working workspace programmatically and then just use it. Eclipse writes a
> > lot of workspace-specific caches that don't work even inside the same
> > workstation, let alone after porting them to another user. (And it's even
> > an error to call them caches if Eclipse won't invalidate them when they
> > are outdated.)
>
> Ugh. Just me trying it here for the time being though. :-)

I didn't quite understand. Let me clarify what I said, just in case you
thought I was talking about something people do every day with Eclipse:

I meant it's virtually impossible to create a _whole_ workspace (with
Eclipse, plugins, projects, settings, just press play on tape...)
programmatically. Individual project settings (and a lot of them) can be
commited to version control and many typical settings work out of the box
after checking them out.

> I'll give it a go. I've read a lot of conflicting advice about installing
> libraries though. A lot of people say just copy the .jar's
> into .../jre/lib/ext/ and the .so's into .../jre/lib/amd64/ but the
> official documentation warns against this for non-specific reasons. In the
> end, I ignored the advice of the official JOGL docs and installed it by
> hand. Compiling and running JOGL demos is easier now but most of them still
> don't work.

I have never written anything under the jre/jdk directory. The whole
thought of stabbing installed software makes me feel sick :)

Fortunately, I don't think there's ever any need for that, either.

- Ville Oikarinen
 
Ville Oikarinen





PostPosted: 2007-10-16 14:45:00 Top

java-programmer >> A constructive debate: Eclipse or NetBeans? On Mon, 15 Oct 2007, Jon Harrop wrote:

> > Anyway, I agree partially that Eclipse workspace creation should be
> > easier. I even filed a bug about the fact that you cannot create a fully
> > working workspace programmatically and then just use it. Eclipse writes a
> > lot of workspace-specific caches that don't work even inside the same
> > workstation, let alone after porting them to another user. (And it's even
> > an error to call them caches if Eclipse won't invalidate them when they
> > are outdated.)
>
> Ugh. Just me trying it here for the time being though. :-)

I didn't quite understand. Let me clarify what I said, just in case you
thought I was talking about something people do every day with Eclipse:

I meant it's virtually impossible to create a _whole_ workspace (with
Eclipse, plugins, projects, settings, just press play on tape...)
programmatically. Individual project settings (and a lot of them) can be
commited to version control and many typical settings work out of the box
after checking them out.

> I'll give it a go. I've read a lot of conflicting advice about installing
> libraries though. A lot of people say just copy the .jar's
> into .../jre/lib/ext/ and the .so's into .../jre/lib/amd64/ but the
> official documentation warns against this for non-specific reasons. In the
> end, I ignored the advice of the official JOGL docs and installed it by
> hand. Compiling and running JOGL demos is easier now but most of them still
> don't work.

I have never written anything under the jre/jdk directory. The whole
thought of stabbing installed software makes me feel sick :)

Fortunately, I don't think there's ever any need for that, either.

- Ville Oikarinen
 
Andreas Stroeber





PostPosted: 2007-11-12 23:47:00 Top

java-programmer >> A constructive debate: Eclipse or NetBeans? Although there are many comments on this topic i want to add my
subjective point of view...

I worked with Eclipse for about 8 months now. A simple web-project with
JSF, Hibernate, Subversion and some related stuff.

For a new project now i wanted to use NetBeans but am not sure to switch
to Eclipse again for several reasons. I tried to list some differences i
experienced between both.

Sure, i am used to Eclipse for some time now...
Sure, both IDEs are quite better than using VI when creating more
complex applications than "Hello World".

One is common to ALL Java IDEs i have used in the last years (Eclipse,
Netbeans, JDeveloper): they are ugly slow compared to Visual Studio.
This may depend on the usage of Java, an interpreted language, the
object orientation or whatever... the effect always is the same: working
is not very smooth.


Eclipse
=======
- very slow and very big
+ very good integration with Tomcat debugging
o module/plugin installation in Eclipse could be better
- no free UML tools with Subversion running


NetBeans
========
+ fast at first
- very slow when using some additional plugins (visual web, ...)
o Tomcat bundled with IDE (why? I had an installation.)
+ good integration with Tomcat debugging (Eclipse seems to be even
better, i have not done much testing)
+ free UML tool working even with collaboration (Subversion)
- UML tool doesn't create Java-Sources without errors (missing methods)
+ Reengineering support for UML (not tested)
- JavaDoc editing in Code is stone-aged (with V6 this is supposed to get
better, in V5 you have to edit in Dialog-Box and enter each parameter
name, ... again)
+ good support for webprojects with beans, etc. (good visualization)
- when using individual project-layout the previous advantage gets a
disadvantage
- configuration is not arranged very clearly (Eclipse has the similar
problem but uses filter-boxes the user can use in configuration dialogs)
- You have one main project and the IDE only supports to start and debug
this one. To debug another project you have to specify the "new" project
as "Main project" - this is easy but incomprehensible.


greetz





Jon Harrop wrote:
> Michele 'xjp' wrote:
>> I've been using Eclipse for a while.
>> However, I've tried NetBeans recently.
>> Here is my point:
>>
>> Eclipse:
>> + more speed and stability than NetBeans
>> + more plugins available
>> + better refactoring support than NetBeans
>>
>> NetBeans:
>> + more clean than Eclipse in managing plugins and installs
>> + better support for creating GUIs than Eclipse
>>
>> What do you think?
>>
>> Thanks
 
 
Lew





PostPosted: 2007-11-13 1:26:00 Top

java-programmer >> A constructive debate: Eclipse or NetBeans? Andreas Stroeber wrote:
> Although there are many comments on this topic i want to add my
> subjective point of view...

Please do not top-post. Use trim-and-inline posting.

> One is common to ALL Java IDEs i have used in the last years (Eclipse,
> Netbeans, JDeveloper): they are ugly slow compared to Visual Studio.

I use Visual Studio, NetBeans (6) and Eclipse-based IDEs like WebSphere
Application Developer (and Eclipse itself). I see no noticeable difference in
speed between NetBeans and VS on the same machine.

Except on my Linux machine, where NetBeans is infinitely faster.

> This may depend on the usage of Java, an interpreted language, the
> object orientation or whatever... the effect always is the same: working
> is not very smooth.

YMMV. NetBeans is very, very smooth whenever I use it.

> NetBeans
> ========
> + fast at first
> - very slow when using some additional plugins (visual web, ...)
> o Tomcat bundled with IDE (why? I had an installation.)

NetBeans comes in various installation configurations, not all of which
include Tomcat. Even when it does, NB detects my Tomcat installation and
feels no need to reinstall it.

> - JavaDoc editing in Code is stone-aged (with V6 this is supposed to get
> better, in V5 you have to edit in Dialog-Box and enter each parameter
> name, ... again)

In NB 6. when you type, for example, "/** " above a method, NB fills in all
the @param, @return and @throws tags, along with any template text you've set
up for the Javadoc comments.

> + good support for webprojects with beans, etc. (good visualization)
> - when using individual project-layout the previous advantage gets a
> disadvantage

Huh? This statement made no sense to me.

> - You have one main project and the IDE only supports to start and debug
> this one. To debug another project you have to specify the "new" project
> as "Main project" - this is easy but incomprehensible.

What? This assertion is just plain mistaken. I've never had that experience,
not even going back to NB 3. I have no trouble whatsoever starting, running,
deploying or debugging any of multiple simultaneously-viewable projects in NB,
whether the main project or not.

--
Lew