I've been playing around with XCode lately and I've really taken to the way code sense does the whole intelligent autocomplete in grey while you type thing.
Are there any plugins that improve on the auto completion of eclipse?
Not that ctrl+space in eclipse is bad or anything, it just seems as though codesense is slightly better (in some ways).
I don't think there is an easy way to integrate XCode codesense within an Eclipse CDT (C/C++) or JDT (Java).
For CDT, there was for a time a project to port XCode to the Eclipse platform (objectiveclipse) due to some frustrations with XCode, but it got shutdown since.
That leaves you with the only option of implementing and "Eclipse auto-completion" extension, a bit like the ones you can find in an XText plugin (whose sources are available).
Related
What type of developer are each of these IDEs aimed at? Is one IDE a superset/subset of the other? What can I do using one and not the other?
I'm looking to do mostly desktop based (Windows) work for now so I believe I am correct in ignoring the Java EE download and focusing on these two.
The comparison of features page isn't helpful as I'm still new to Eclipse and Java. For example "Code Recommenders Developer Tools" means nothing to me yet.
Eclipse standard has been downloaded 1.7 million times and is 246MB (as at 7-Sep-13). While Eclipse IDE for Java developers has been downloaded 430,000 times and is 151MB.
So I'm guessing Eclipse Standard is the way to go, but why do they offer the second option?
All the other answers are more or less true, but miss the point (in my opinion), The download page states it clearly:
Eclipse Standard ...
The Eclipse Platform, and all the tools needed to develop and debug it
versus
Eclipse IDE for Java Developers ...
The essential tools for any Java developer, including a Java IDE, a CVS client, Git client, XML Editor, Mylyn, Maven integration...
So if your focus is to develop for Eclipse itself, the Eclipse Standard includes all what you need (including the sources of all features and plugins).
If your focus is Java development (not Eclipse plugins), you should start with the Eclipse IDE for Java Developers.
If your focus is Java EE development, it is simpler to start with Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers and so forth ...
The comparison page could certainly use some links, nevertheless a quick web search will tell you all about those plugin.
For your needs, you might look into the "for Java Developers" package, as it contains WindowBuilder, which let's you define GUIs visually in several frameworks.
(Code Recommenders is also nice, but I've personally found it a bit hit-or-miss)
However, you're fine installing any of the packages either way, since you can always install the plugins you need later on. My recommendation is to simply read about those plugins and make an informed decision on what you should install.
If you're doing GUI work then you might choose the Java Developers package as it comes with WindowBuilder.
Other similar questions are:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/7835305/what-are-my-options-for-developing-a-gui-in-java-in-eclipse
Best GUI designer for eclipse?
Create GUI using Eclipse (Java)
The difference between the eclipse downloads are just the pre-installed plug-ins.
I'd go with standard and install the plug-ims i want, but take what fits you.
I am an Emacs lover probably because I love the key binding and I am able to do things very quickly. I also use Eclipse IDE for my Java/Android/Python/ development because it is free, most of my peers use it, and it works. I find myself switching between emacs and Eclipse and the workflow just isn't great. What I would like to do is setup the key bindings in Eclipse so that they are like Emacs.
Can someone suggest the best Eclipse plugin I could use for this. Or can anyone talk about how they've used Eclipse to be more Emacs like. Thanks in advance
No plugin needed for basic Emacs keybindings!
Go to
Windows → Preferences → General → Keys
and select Emacs scheme.
It won't provide all Emacs commands (obviously) but it covers the things you can't live without such as navigation, selection, cutting / pasting etc.
I have to second the recommendation of Emacs+. I've been using and loving Emacs since the dawn of time and the key bindings and functionality of Emacs are hard-wired into my fingers and brain by now. Before Emacs+ came along, I found Eclipse to be a complete bear to use, as years of muscle memory and knowing how to get things done without even thinking about it, were not only useless in Eclipse, but in fact detrimental.
Emacs+ has fixed all of this for me. Now using Eclipse is nearly as seamless as using Emacs, plus I get all the features of a modern IDE. It's practically the best of all worlds. The only thing I still really miss from Emacs is M-q filling of "//" comments.
I should also point out that this is far more than a simple set of key-bindings. It faithfully reproduces a lot of subtle Emacs behavior that you take for granted, until it's not there.
First try turning on the Emacs key bindings in your key preferences. If that doesn't give you all that you need, then you might try installing the Emacs+ plugin. Of course, if you have any elisp customizations, I think you might be out-of-luck.
Personally, I always prefer to just learn editor-centric way to do things so that I am not helpless when I sit at someone else's computer.
The Emacs+ plugin does a good bit better job providing Emacs keys than the standard Eclipse install.
I enabled the Emacs key 'scheme' as #aioobe suggested a long time ago in all my copies of Eclipse. However, recently, a new form of perverse behavior popped up in some of my Eclipse installations: I type any one of several Emacs commands, such as Ctrl-L (to center the window), and this annoying dialog box pops up, offering me the correct Emacs action for that key and another option, which comes from nothing I recognize, but is certainly NOT an Emacs key binding.
This is problematic for two reasons 1) it pops up out of the blue, in some but not all projects (I haven't figured out a pattern yet) 2) it is obviously a violation of the promised support of an Emacs key scheme, a violation that only emerged recently, making the Emacs support far less valuable.
Emacs support in Eclipse was never very complete, but I would like to get back to the state I had a few months ago, when Ctrl-L, Ctrl-D and Ctrl-K all worked correctly as Emacs keys w/o this annoying dialog in all projects.
If Emacs+ worked in Indigo and Juno, I would try that. But as it is...
I'm looking for the following:
A nice debugger that allows me to easily view variable values if I use breakpoints.
Works very nicely in Windows 7.
Has something similar to the Toolbox pane in Visual Studio.
Built in intellisense, and code completion with the TAB key.
Long term support. I mean something that will last and stay in active development for years. I don't want a pet project IDE that will stop developing in a year. I'm just learning so it'll be very dificult at first to switch IDE's.
I'm new so I don't really know which IDE provides what I need between the two. Any help?
Well, I switched from Eclipse to Visual Studio, and I use both just about every day.
I found it hard to get used to the little differences at first, but now I am proficient in both IDEs.
I can't speak to whether or not Netbeans would be easier to learn, but Eclipse shouldn't be hard at all.
Both IDEs will provide all of the features that you have listed, and you should be able to customize both of them to get them to work almost exactly like Visual Studio.
So you want to learn Java and your first question is about which IDE to learn ? I suggest you look at BlueJ which is an IDE designed for people who want to learn Java. From my, I admit limited, experience with the IDEs you mention, BlueJ is the one which gets least in one's way when trying to learn Java as opposed to learning the IDE. Once you've exhausted BlueJ's capabilities there is an easy progression to NetBeans through a plug-in but you would probably not find it too difficult to step up to Eclipse instead.
Yes, I know you want to choose between Eclipse and NetBeans but BlueJ might be of interest.
This is a common debate, and there are obviously merits on both sides (this might be better served as a community wiki page). I prefer Eclipse, but to answer your questions as well as I can briefly:
Works very nicely in Windows 7.
Both are fine.
Has something similar to the Toolbox pane in Visual Studio.
Sorry, not familiar. Neither are short on panes, though Eclipse has a richer cache of third party plugins that might give you the experience you want.
Built in intellisense, and code completion with the TAB key.
I believe both are Ctrl-Space by default. If you're working in Java in Eclipse, there's an automated pop-up after a half second delay each time you type a separator (.) character.
Long term support. I mean something that will last and stay in active development for >years. I don't want a pet project IDE that will stop developing in a year. I'm just >learning so it'll be very dificult at first to switch IDE's.
Both are very mature products. I'd imagine Eclipse's fortunes are a little more secure simply because NetBeans might experience some turbulence during the Oracle acquisition of Sun.
My only other comment is that it's always seemed to me that Netbeans had far nicer "click-and-go" project templates out of the box, while Eclipse offered richer third party library integrations and a better debugger.
Probably both will do. Personally, I'd rather use Netbeans, because it's easier to get started right-out-of-the box. Eclipse depends more on plugins.
Why not try both and see which one suits your individual tastes more?
Both are find but if you want to build GUI's, Netbeans has the edge as it has a built in GUI builder, including a toolbox of controls to use with it.
Eclipse does not have a GUI builder. The commercial Eclipse distribution, MyEclipse does have a GUI builder - it's actually the one from Netbeans.
Neither Intellij IDEA is the Cadillac of Java IDEs
Netbeans = Great out of box experiance
Eclipse = Highly customizable with plugins and (so I've heard) slightly better intellisence-like capabilities.
If possible, I'd say try both (despite the bandwidth problem). If you get basic Java Development versions, the sizes aren't that big (48 MB for NetBeans and 92 MB for Eclipse)
I personally prefer NetBean's in-built capabilities since I don't like having to install plugins to make my experience the way I want it (and not all Eclipse plugins are free) but most of my fellow java devs prefer Eclipse's simplicity and ease of use.
I think you should try Intellij Idea, it the most powerful-intuitive java IDE I've never seen (http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/index.html). The new Community Edition is free and more than enough for java developpement. As it is highly configurable you can choose 'TAB' for auto completion, but I think you can learn from existing combinations that are well design.
Regards.
Java has some really nice IDEs available and many will do what you require.
I dont know you, but I use VS with Resharper so I m very used to those shortcuts, if you do too then have a look at IntelliJ ( they have a comunity edition)
Otherwise you can get eclipse and get the IntelliJ keymap ( or try to get the default VS keymap)
Netbeans is nice too, but I had some problems with it ( ie didnt build, rancomly crashing, etc)
Also most offer Source Control integration ( in Eclipse you have many flavours of subversion for example)
I guess you ll have to play around and find what suits you
Cheers
Emacs and Java change propagation
Hi,
I'm mostly used to code in IDE like Eclipse but I wanted to try emacs. Because I keep hearing about how much better it is than big IDE like Eclipse and Visual Studio.
So I was looking at what emacs provides for Java (with the JDEE extension) but it doesn't seem as complete as Eclipse.
One of the most important thing I look for in a Java editor is change propagation and error notification. For example if I rename a class, I want to be able to have all the declarations of this class renamed automatically. And if I delete a method, I want to be able to see all the place where this creates errors.
I didn't find those things in emacs, and this is a showstopper for me, I can't see how I could work on big projects without those features.
So my question is : those features don't exist or is it just me that haven't looked at the right place?
Emacs can be better that Eclipse, but the question is "for what"? Emacs (and VIM) are generally smaller, faster and optimized for text editing and navigation*. In recent versions Eclipse are quite capable for editing and navigating java code but with different "style".
If you are willing to learn Emacs then learn it. You will get experiences on your own and it is very important for a developer (you are the only one can decide what is work for you). But learning Emacs does not mean to "throw out" Eclipse, they can co-exist quite well if you use ant or maven-based project building and a source control system. You can for example do all editing in Emacs while for debugging and refactoring use Eclipse.
There are some interesting thought in this thread about Emacs and java development. Also there is an interesting read and conclusions about Emacs and Eclipse from someone who tried both environment.
If you are not an expert Eclipse user yet you should look at the powerful editing and navigating features of Eclipse before starting Emacs:
10 Eclipse navigation shortcuts every java programmer should know
Effective Eclipse: shortcut keys
Effective Eclipse: custom templates
Effective Eclipse: fix it quickly
Back to the question: there is an Emacs extension called Xrefactory for Java but it does not support Java 1.5 features so it is useful only if you use Java 1.4 or older.
(*) of course they are much more, I know :)
Emacs is an incredible editor, with good support for developing in C. For developing in Java there is much better support in one of the Java IDE's which has deep knowledge about the programs being edited. You probably want something like Eclipse, JDeveloper or Netbeans.
In my opinion you will not be satisified with developing Java with Emacs, and you should use another tool.
I don't know much about Emacs (so you may regard the following as off-topic), but I work with both Eclipse and VIM.
I use Eclipse for big Java projects, and I can't live without the large-scale features (cross-project renaming/refactoring etc.). I use VIM for small scale stuff (e.g. knocking up code for StackOverflow examples in multiple languages).
Eclipse and VIM have very different capabilities and consequently I use each bearing this in mind. I don't expect VIM to do the heavy lifting, but on the other hand I don't expect Eclipse to start in a keystroke and to be able to write a new (small) project in a few seconds (in whatever language I require - not restricted to Java). Perhaps you should look at the Emacs/Eclipse pair in a similar light ?
Over the past year, I've heard an increasing amount of hype regarding the Scala language. I know that there are several existing projects that have plans to integrate Scala support with IDEs; however, it isn't always clear how good the integration really is.
Do they currently support Intellisense as well as Eclipse and Netbeans do for the Java language? Do they support instant verification as well?
I can't personally speak to the stability of the IntelliJ or NetBeans plugins (though I have heard good things), but the Scala IDE for Eclipse just recently made a new release with Scala 2.7.4. Architecturally, this release is quite different from the previous ones in that it uses Equinox Aspects, the officially supported mechanism for extending JDT (and other cross-plugin extensions). Whereas before the Scala plugin had to literally hack into the JDT internals using private APIs and reflection to trick the system into behaving properly, now it is able to simply declare its extension points and let the system do the rest. It's hard to even describe how much more stable this makes things. I'm not saying that it's all sunshine and roses yet, but if you've tried and rejected the plugin in the past (as I had), it's time to give it another look.
As for how it stacks up feature-wise, SDT doesn't have any refactoring support (IntelliJ has some basic stuff like "Rename"), nor does the editor do some things like "Mark Occurrences". However, it has a significantly better Outline than NetBeans, better compiler support than IDEA, and very good semantic highlighting. All three plugins support content assist (or "intellisense", as Microsoft calls it), but none of them are particularly reliable in this area just yet. The Scala IDE for Eclipse is the only one to support incremental compilation (alla Eclipse's Java tooling).
My advice: shop around. Try all three and see which one works the best for you. From what I've been hearing, the Scala IDE for Eclipse has leap-frogged the competition with its latest release, but the others have shown such consistent stability and steady advancement that you can't count them out just yet.
Here's a similar question:
Which is the best IDE for Scala development?
In my very short experience with the Scala IDE for Eclipse and the Scala Plugin for Netbeans, it seemed like the Netbeans plug-in was a little more solid than the Eclipse one.
With the Scala IDE for Eclipse I was having problems with running a Hello World-type Scala object, and sometimes the syntax highlighting would start acting up. Then, I tried out the Netbeans plug-in, and it seemed to be more functional than the Eclipse one.
I haven't used either Scala IDE plug-in much in-depth, so I can't speak out of a lot of experience, but just from my initial impression, the Netbeans plug-in seemed a little bit more stable than the Eclipse one.
Currently, all three main IDEs are at roughly the same level of support.
IntelliJ - the plugin has fits of not working at all, but is otherwise quite good. The underlying platform is sluggish (at least in linux) since v8.
Eclipse - the plugin is receiving a lot of support and is under very active development.
NetBeans - IMHO, the plugin works a little better than the Eclipse one, but not being able to run arbitrary files is a major downer.
All of the above suffer from being unable to parse the AST in all contexts. It is quite easy to confuse them by mixing in traits with implicit defs, for example. No IDE can be trusted when it advises of a syntax error. Fall back to the compiler to be certain.
I'm quite happy using IntelliJ IDEA 8.1 and its Scala plugin and can recommend it. It even has a roadmap that you can influence by voting your favorite missing features :) I don't have experience with the Scala support of the other IDE's, unfortunately.
I'm using the Eclipse Scala plugin. Its pretty good but not at the same level as the Java tooling.
AS for intelliJ, no idea.
But between Eclipse and Netbeans, I must say Netbeans especially if you are not willing trade maven for sbt and you want an IDE that does not get in the way of maven.
Netbeans maven support is just way too good.
The Netbeans scala editor seems to work quite nicely as well.
I care not for the integrated scala development kit in netbeans or the compiler plugin, or any such helpers. From netbeans I expect only tthree things:
(a) Do not get in the way of maven and let maven run my build
(b) Give me a decent editor
(c) Let me drill down from my .scala files into the source code of the libraries referred by my maven dependencies.
And Netebeans is able to deliver all three quite well, I belive, even if at times it feels a bit too slow.
What I can say is that
(1) You do not run into any compilation issues since the task is up to maven.
The maven compiler plugin is a bit too slow. But compiling scala vs java is always like that, painful. Still if you've tried GWT compiling java to javascript is more painful even.
(2) Netbeans figures out the source code to you maven dependencies flawlessly and you can drill in into the most obscure sacala operators, such as the CSS mappers of lift.
As for eclipse, eclipse maven integration has always been nasty.
Netbeans maven integration can turn very sour if you have a big project with too many dependencies and modules. Then the check for external changes done by netbeans is just horribly slow. That is the downside of netbeans.
However, if you are and SBT fan ... well, maybe then answer might be something else.
But for me, since maven has become the thing it is today, I never want to go back again to those "web application project", "library project" etc... wizard like options that you have when you create a new project in the IDE.
I simply want "maven project", and please figure out what my output artefact is by reading the pom.