JavaPulse » ide

Eclipse vs. Netbeans

Clara Ko — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 14:15:49 +0000

I use Eclipse since my last project was a Websphere project and WSAD (Websphere Studio Application Developer) is based on Eclipse. Before that I used IntelliJ, which is good but not J2EE oriented. In my new project some of my colleagues use Netbeans, so I looked into what the differences are.

Eclipse
Eclipse is the king of the hill when it comes to Java IDE. It is free and flexible. One disadvantage is to know how to deal with the myriad of plug-ins. Because it is so popular, everyone is adding their 2-cent plug-in, and it’s hard to find out what’s available and if it would be useful for you.

Netbeans
Netbeans is reputed to have a better GUI builder but I’m not a front-end developer, so I can’t say much about it. Someone did tell me that it is really slow though.

MyEclipse

Clara Ko — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:41:33 +0000

The MyEclipse IDE makes a supercharged Eclipse with support for UML, Spring, Hibernate, and Struts, JSF, AJAX, amongst others. And at just around $50 for the Professional Edition, MyEclipse is still VERY affordable. So if you’re using Eclipse anyway, then MyEclipse is probably the best way to go.

UML Tools

Clara Ko — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 11:23:40 +0000

UML is the defacto standard for visually representing object-oriented design. UML diagrams can simplify wordy design documents without the need for complicated key legends to explain adhoc symbols. In companies where adhoc diagramming are used, the legends are often missing, causing ambiguities and confusion. UML goes hand-in-hand with Java programming, as it is suitable for orient-oriented design. So there is no excuse for not using UML in Java projects, especially for transferring design to programmers or for programmers to document their designs.

The most common arguments against using UML is the cost of licensing of suitable software. However, there exists very cheap options.
Here is a good list of UML Tools just so you know what is out there. I have no idea how current this list is, but it seems quite comprehensive.

I also have another suggestion that is not on the list, probably because the list was compiled before this software was in existence. That is the MyEclipse add-on which has support for UML, Spring, Hibernate, and Struts, among others. And at just around $50 for the Professional Edition that includes the UML editor, MyEclipse is still VERY affordable. So if you’re using Eclipse anyway, then MyEclipse is probably the best way to go.