I would like to get your opinion on choosing an IDE to develop Java applications.
At the moment I am using Netbeans and I am very satisfied with it. I tried to get a good comparison between them with google. There are a lot of old articles about “The big Three” but I could not get a good answer because they evolve a lot in the recent time. It is time to get an up to date situation!
Here is my opinon:
JDeveloper Pro – if you would like to migrate from oracle forms to java -> use ADF (application development framework), support all phases of software development
JDeveloper Contra – it is not independent (developed by Oracle), does not have future in open source world, slow startup
Netbeans Pro – strong community, open source, independent
Netbeans Contra – bad reputation from the past, I am missing a plug-in for data modelling
Eclipse Pro – a lot of people using it, it is fast
Eclipse Contra – I think it is losing market share, no clear vision
I would be very glad to get your opinion! Do you agree or disagree with my statements? Do not hesitate to put your comment!
Do you find this post useful? Do not hesitate to leave a reply! Go to the bottom of this page.
Tags: choosing an IDE to develop Java application, comparison JDeveloper Eclipse Netbeans, JDeveloper, jdeveloper vs eclipse, jdeveloper vs netbeans, migrate from oracle forms to java, netbeans, netbeans vs eclipse
There are only big two: Eclipse and Netbeans.
I’m assuming that you want to stay in the arena of free or opensource products. In my opinion, the free products (eclipse and netbeans) are every bit as good a commercial offering such as IntelliJ (which, if you have the money, is really pretty good).
I have used both Netbeans and Eclipse. I prefer Netbeans because it more closely matches the way that I work. And that, in my opinion, should be the final deciding factor. Try out both and see which one works best for you.
There are a few differences between the two. Eclipse seems to go with the idea that you get a bare bones development environment out of the box and then you have to choose which tools you like best to bolt on until you get your preferred development environment. One problem that I encountered with Eclipse is getting good tools that you trust. Occasionally, I got a plugin that would constantly crash my IDE. Netbeans goes a slightly different direction in that it gives you a rich development environment out of the box and then allows you to bolt on various tools as you need them. And the plugins that you can use in Netbeans are either certified or they tell you up front that it is not a certified plugin. I guess that’s another difference. Eclipse has many, many different locations that you can configure to get your plugins. Netbeans has one.
Eclipse also has this concept of a perspective which seems to be very foreign if you are used to using tools like IntelliJ or Netbeans. Personally, I never had any difficulty with perspectives. I thought it was a good idea for very large projects. It allows you to focus your concentration into the area where you are working.
You really should not factor in Netbeans past. Since Netbeans version 5.0, it has been a totally different platform. It is true that it is missing really good data modeling support. But, that is getting better all the time.
I would not even consider JDeveloper. I have used that too and I don’t know why you would want to go that route. The tool that I used didn’t really have much in the way of anything that I wanted or needed. But, you may like it better. Again, it just depends on the way that you work.
So, give them both a try. The real decision just depends on what you want, how you work, and what you like. The only measure you really need to take in your IDE is productivity. If you are productive with a tool, use it. Otherwise, it’s religion.
Shakir Exactly there are only two best IDES: Netbeans and Eclipse, but Netbeans is the only IDE you need
Hi All,
Now that Oracle has bought Sun Microsystems , what is the future for Netbeans IDE ??
Would everyone switch to Jdeveloper ?
Thanks
Hi,
I don’t know from Swing development perspective, which IDE is the best. However Netbeans is a complete “peace of crap” when you want to to develop JSF applications. By my own painful experience, table components only work if you use their GUI to create their stuff. Unfortunately in the real world where you need to work with “Stored Procedures” for example, their middleware code is buggy and it does not work at all.
JDeveloper for JSF is completely clean and it does not add any additional middleware code. It is the tool that I am using to build JSF applications