I’ve been messing around with Eclipse for the past month and I must say that I’m quite impressed using it as a Java IDE, it’s default form. I’ve added it to my Java arsenal not as a replacement for Netbeans but rather a compliment to what it can?t do.

Having done Java development for about 2 years, I?m constantly looking for ways to improve development time. From Notepad, I moved to Netbeans. I dabbled with J# in Visual Studio 2005 but I felt like a fish out of water so I switched back. And just recently, I’ve discovered Eclipse.

Here’s a list of what I liked on all 3 IDE’s:

Netbeans:

• Better mobile development tools
• Better support for html, jsp, xml, xslt
• Uses Matisse (the new GUI builder) which is way ahead of anything Eclipse has to offer
• JFluid profiler
• Free/Open Source Software so it?s easily modifiable to fit your needs and it can be used for developing commercial tools
• Multiplatform: it works on Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, etc.
• Plug-ins!
• Free
• Not confined to the Windows environment and to developing Windows/ASP.NET/PocketPC based applications

Visual Studio:

• Excellent debugging tools
• Excellent Windows.Forms GUI designer
• Access to all CLR features
• .Net Integration

Eclipse:

• Better refactoring tools
• Less resource hog
• Has an excellent Quickfix (Ctrl + 1) with more options than VS?s one
• Integrated CVS
• Uses RCP framework
• Integrated unit testing tools
• Free functional tests, code coverture, etc. via free plug-ins
• Free/Open Source Software so it?s easily modifiable to fit your needs and it can be used for developing commercial tools
• Multiplatform: it works on Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, etc.
• Tools for every other possible language
• Free
• Not confined to the Windows environment and to developing Windows/ASP.NET/PocketPC based applications