Why we love the Eclipse IDE

REVIEW: ECLIPSE IDE



Any software developer at an IT firm, any prodigy programmer in their first year at college or even a "wannabe software developer" like me, knows and respects Eclipse as the ultimate IDE (Integrated Development Environment) for the functionality it provides to the developers. Eclipse is not only a free IDE but it is also one of the best IDE with the ability to run cross-platform.




Eclipse is a Java based software, but it not only restricted to Java development, it allows developers an extension, or a plug-in of ability if you may, to develop programs with other languages. Supporting the C family, JavaScript, Ruby, Python with PyDev and also packages for Mathematica. Android Application Development was only supported by Eclipse until Google unveiled Android Studio back in May.



WHY DEVELOPERS LIKE ECLIPSE?



Eclipse is almost like Notepad++, but with much more features than just syntax color coding, like syntax auto-completion, which allows the user to type prompts of the syntax and have an accurate completion. For example, if I were to open parenthesis, "(" Eclipse automatically closes the parenthesis and moves the cursor in the middle of the parenthesis to continue typing. A little like Android's predictive text.



Eclipse also highlights the any error in the code, such as syntax errors, type mismatch error. Source code browsing is one of the most appreciated feature by developers, packages and classes of the project your working on. With the source code browser, help and reference of the language on the internet can easily be accessed without having to switch to a web browser.



WHY I DISLIKED IT?



Well we all know how and why Eclipse is such a great software. Now I would not be able to read every or most developers mind as to what might they dislike about Eclipse, but I can surely share my thoughts.



There are little bugs, little complexity in Eclipse which annoy me. I use a Sony Vaio S Series, more specifically for the tech geeks like me, the VPCSA35GG from 2012. Its a 2.8GHz dual-core dual thread Intel Core i-7 processor on 4MB L3 Cache, 8GB RAM with a AMD Radeon(tm) HD 6630M graphics card at speed mode rolling on Windows 7 Pro. With this laptop, in Eclipse Juno 4.2 and all previous versions included, when trying to switch between tabs of suppose classes, the program lagged a considerably, sometimes stopped responding; which required me to exit and restart the program. This is certainly very disturbing, easily disrupting your concentration. I believe if, I as a young programmer get irritated by this, then I can only imagine how developers trying to solve a semantic problem, or tracking a bug must feel.



The bug is not the only issue. Recently I updated my JDK from 1.7.19 to 1.7.21, and Eclipse was unwilling to run or debug my program. Now I had no idea that the build path would have to be manually changed, but realized that instantly. (A wannabe software developers stupidity.) Despite realizing that, I failed successfully change the build path and have the program running.



Having used Indigo (3.7) for a very long time, I personalized syntax color coding. When I updated to Juno (4.2), I tried to personalize the syntax color coding preferences, but almost lost myself in the preference window, perhaps I haven't visited that window in very long time. However, exported preference settings from Indigo and imported to Juno, a very handy feature.



And recently while trying to run an Android programming that I was working on, some how for some reason, the program was unwilling to run, something I have not been able to solve as of yet.



In short some of its settings are very complex to change, some which may leave users scratching there heads, some end up breaking their screens if they're too impatient.



However, the features that Eclipse provides to its users are far greater than the hassle it causes at times. Hopefully these issues will be solved in the future.



This is based on Eclipse version Juno 4.2 and earlier. Soon a review of the new Eclipse Keepler 4.3 will be made in contrast to Juno 4.2 and previous versions.
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