NetBeans or Eclipse?

Discussion in 'Plugin Development' started by captainawesome7, Jul 22, 2011.

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  1. Offline

    captainawesome7

    Well, I have made about 40 plugins using Eclipse. I am fully aware that some people prefer NetBeans, but I don't understand why. After viewing Nikikokun's plugin tutorial the handle, I was "inspired" to write and compile a plugin using NetBeans, and while it seemed to be a similar experience, there were a few things that I noticed right away that I didn't like:
    • Ease of use towards lazy people was not great. When I type in something like Player player = event.getPlayer() and I haven't imported player into the class yet, with Eclipse I just double click on the underlined Player and I click import org.bukkit.entity.Player. Using NetBeans, however, afaik the easiest way is to right click and choose "Fix imports", wich you can do with Eclipse as well, but I didn't like that I couldn't just double click any problem and get what Eclipse calls a "Quick Fix".
    • How stupid it was to make a new YAML file (plugin.yml). I finally found new yml file and clicked it. I named it plugin.yml, which for some reason saved the file as plugin.yml.yml. The worst part though, was after saving it and just assuming that it would be included in the .jar, after starting my test server and seeing that it didn't include plugin.yml, I was disappointed. After a simple file move, I realized that it was pretty easy to do, you just had to know how to do it. In eclipse though, you just make a new file called plugin.yml and edit it, it is included in the .jar in the right place.
    • I was also pleased with the relatively (to eclipse) quick startup time of NetBeans, but my slow Eclipse start is most likely due to the ~50 Java Projects in there.
    • I was extremely satisfied with the "Clean and Build" option, but displeased with the annoying process of navigating to the project/dist folder just to copy + paste the test version onto my test server. In Eclipse it isn't much better, when exporting a project it exports it as the last used jar name unless you specify otherwise, with no consideration of what project you are exporting. For example, if I export 3co as 3co.jar, then click on SimpleAdmin and export it, it would export it as 3co.jar as well. The plus side to Eclipse's way of doing things is the ability to have 1 folder where all of your jar exports are located.
    Lastsly, I realize that most of my problems/gripes could be easily fixed and that I am just a total n00b to NetBeans and to the more intricate side of Eclipse. Thoughts?
     
  2. Offline

    bergerkiller

    Eclipse is awesome, period. :)
    Eclipse has a few (very few) flaws, other than that is it just so unbelievably stable!
    In my Yahtzee 3D game project I had 20 classes visible as a tab and could still switch between my resource export folder and Eclipse without major lags. The long loading times have to do with the amount of plug-ins added for Eclipse, see the "plugins" folder in Eclipse.

    The only use of Netbeans over Eclipse is when you need to design an application GUI. It has a nice designer view with elements pre-rendered and a properties dialogue (like Visual Basic Express) to the right. But, as soon I had to add some code under a button click handler it became a nightmare. Designer code and executed code all twisted together...unlike Visual Basic which stores designer and executed code separated.

    Plus, Eclipse is stand-alone and can easily be configured to work on for example USB-drives.
     
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    Vikom Media

    Eclipse by far!
    I totally back everything bergerkiller is saying.
    Overall Eclipse is a far more user-friendly program in my opinion
     
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    s1mpl3x

    I prefer Eclipse, imo it has a better gui and once your in and know some of the features you just won't program without it. It really makes work easier and faster.

    I tried NetBeans and just didn't liked it...the gui, the handling plus it was missing some features of Eclipse i really used alot.

    Also Eclipse offers such a immense amout of Plugins and there is also one for the GUI stuff which is much better then the NetBeans editor imo: http://code.google.com/javadevtools/wbpro/
     
  5. Offline

    captainawesome7

    Thanks for that link btw, it is working better than the NetBeans GUI stuff
     
  6. Offline

    loganwm

    I've almost always preferred using a lightweight text editor with syntax-highlighting and a few other small bells and whistles, but I can appreciate Eclipse for being relatively simple and incredibly time-saving for redundant tasks (like refactoring.)

    My experiences with Netbeans weren't unpleasant, but they weren't impressively stand-out either. The IDE is a bit too involved in certain aspects where I'd rather do things myself, and it's not as helpful as eclipse for the easy-import.

    I'm definitely partial to eclipse when I need an IDE though. It's roughly as fully featured as Visual Studio, but it lacks the try-to-do-everything nature.
     
  7. Offline

    Daniel Heppner

    Yeah, but how many of you build your plugins with Maven like you're supposed to? I've always used NetBeans and when I tried Eclipse, I disliked it. I can back
    as NetBeans definitely has some odd quirks with doing things for you. I think that we all use the IDE we start with, and it's something that's personal. If you try to switch to a different IDE, things work differently than you're used to so you can't work properly.

    Btw, big plus for NB: alt+shift+F will auto-format your code. I haven't seen something like this for Eclipse.
     
  8. Offline

    Sacaldur

    Eclipse: Ctrl+Shift+F

    NetBeans even has plugins, such as a plugin for python development
    the look&feel is better (system dependent) and i cant remember a crash or something else like this

    I'm using eclipse only because the tutorial I read used it and I was to idle to change the IDE later
     
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  9. Offline

    CptSausage

    You can left click on the little '!' symbol left at the line and than click which error in the line you would like get fixed.

    I prefer NetBeans because it reminds me of the Microsoft Visual Studios, which I like most :D
     
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    Connor Mahaffey

    I use Netbeans, just because it's what I learned on and I know all its little quirks, etc. Overall I'd say its a little bit faster than Eclipse and definitely more polished. That said, I do have Eclipse installed because I'm learning how to make Android applications right now, and the Eclipse plugin for that is very nice. And I have to say, I do like the automatic import shortcut in Eclipse.
     
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    Rayfe

    Hmm... I'm very new to development, but I initially started with Eclipse, but tried NB soon after. I'm on a Mac so perhaps the interface differs slightly from the PC version, but I liked the NB UI over the Eclipse UI. And from the little bit I have played with them both as the noob that I am.. NetBeans attracts me much more.. Again, this could be completely different since I'm on a Mac. I have experience the things you brought up in your comparison, but none of them really stuck out to me as a problem as I experienced them. And I think that "Clean and Build" is my favorite :D
     
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    Sagacious_Zed Bukkit Docs

    I've been using both. The one thing I can't seem to get eclipse to do well is git and maven integration.... But it could very well be that I have not spent enough time trying to get those plugins to work.

    Otherwise, once you learn how they are different, you can accomplish the same things, easily.
     
    Europia79 likes this.
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    Ahniolator

    I've used both IDEs extensively for different projects. I started on Eclipse awhile back for plugins for a different game entirely (Still working in Java), and used it exclusively for about 9 months. Afterwards I stopped writing in java altogether for awhile, and I came here after that break. I got a new computer in-between that time and I've had the opportunity to try NetBeans for the last 3-4 months while working on Bukkit plugins. I also currently use an Eclipse-based html/css/javascript IDE called Aptana Studio 3, which is essentially Eclipse for web design.

    For most of the problems people have stated about NetBeans, try using ALT-Enter. It's pretty much the universal "show me what I'm doing wrong" key binding. All of the points that have been introduced in this thread so far have been somewhat invalid. Here are a few examples:

    Here you say that you have to double-click the "problem" and choose fix import. This requires 3 clicks. In NetBeans, you can click the "!" on whatever line number that your "problem" is, and click "import: [stuff]". This requires 2 clicks.
    ^ On the "Ease of use towards lazy people" scale, NetBeans wins.

    Edit:
    Point proven, Eclipse wins this one.

    This was just a simple mistake you made as a new NetBeans user. Admittedly, finding the YAML file in the "New file" dialogue is difficult if you don't know that YAML files aren't under the Java Card 3/Java/Swing GUI Forms/JavaBeans Objects/AWT GUI Forms/JUnit/Persistence/Groovy/Hibernate/Web Services/XML categories, but even then once you reach the "Other" category, it's right inside the window without needing to scroll down. Aside from that, all you need to do is set the folder that the file is being created in to the "Resources" folder of your project.
    ^Nobody wins, it was simply user error

    This is approximately accurate with NetBeans as well. Even though it doesn't slow the application's start time, it does take some time to "scan your projects" once it's open.
    ^ Nobody wins, all programs slow down when they have a lot of projects within them

    I partially disagree with this statement. I do find that going to the project folder is tedious, but necessary in comparison to having to rename your .jar file every time you want to export a different project
    ^Nobody wins, mostly just personal preference here

    1st paragraph: I'm not exactly what your point is for this paragraph
    2nd paragraph: I honestly hate the GUI creation part of NetBeans. It is never consistent. You can use the same function in the same situation and get different results. That part of NetBeans is the definition of insanity.
    3rd paragraph: In what way is NetBeans not standalone? You can easily install NetBeans to an external drive and have it work properly as well? (Confused here)
    ^Eclipse wins here, for its GUI plugin that works better than NetBeans' built-in function

    Honestly, I haven't tried to use Eclipse for Maven projects simply because I do all of mine in NetBeans, so this result can be seen as biased.
    ^Nobody wins, I have not tried Maven+Eclipse.

    All the other general:
    They do exist, you just need to find them out. I prefer NetBeans in this case, because you can set your own key bindings. (Ex. I have the auto-format keys bound to CTRL-Period)
    ^Nobody wins, mostly just personal preference/laziness

    Honestly after using both for a descent amount of time, I'm partial to NetBeans. However, if you are interested in Web Design, I highly recommend checking out Aptana Studio 3 as a freeware alternative to Microsoft Visual Studio. It even already has HTML5 support.

    Code:java
    1. private String getFinalScore() {
    2. FinalScore fin = new FinalScore(NetBeans = 1, Eclipse = 2, Nobody = 5);
    3. if (isMavenBattleIsDecided == Netbeans) {
    4. NetBeans += 1;
    5. } else if (isMavenBattleIsDecided == Eclipse) {
    6. Eclipse +=1;
    7. } else if (isMavenBattleIsDecided == Undecided) {
    8. return "They are in essence, equal. Most arguments are going to be similar to Win/Mac arguments";
    9. }
    10. if (NetBeans == Eclipse) {
    11. return "They are in essence, equal. Most arguments are going to be similar to Win/Mac arguments";
    12. } else if (NetBeans > Eclipse) {
    13. return "Netbeans wins today";
    14. } else if (NetBeans < Eclipse) {
    15. return "Eclipse wins today";
    16. } else {
    17. return "How the hell did I get here?";
    18. }
    19. }


    Edit: And please take everything that I've said here with a grain of salt. I am, after all, only human. ;)
     
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    dbizzzle

    Actually in eclipse it takes 1 click, you just hold your mouse over the red line, and then the thing pops up and you click import... Eclipse wins.
     
  15. Offline

    Ahniolator

    Noted. Eclipse wins the battle of the "fixing imports". It's only a tentative overall win until I or someone else can evaluate that Eclipse handles Maven projects better or worse than NetBeans. Once that evaluation has been made, we can say that one of them is officially "better" in all of the arguments brought up so far.
     
  16. Offline

    K900

    IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate. 150MB in RAM with CraftBukkit source, 200MB with an android application, F/LOSS (community edition). Refactoring features are way better than Eclipse or NetBeans, code analysis/inspection is really good and it's actually speedy even on my 2-yr-old netbook. You get the idea.
     
  17. Offline

    AbeJ

    In Netbeans, just press alt-enter when you're on the line that needs a new import, and then press enter again when the popup shows. No mousing required.

    Edit: alt/option, not ctrl. ctrl is different.
     
  18. Offline

    dbizzzle

    Thats more effort to press alt-enter + enter than just click once
     
  19. Offline

    thehutch

    Notepad = the best for hardcore coders :p
    Not that I am lol :p
     
  20. Offline

    AbeJ

    As someone who uses a keyboard for everything, I find that Netbeans' approach is much better for my style. Other people may have other preferences.
     
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