Eclipse vs NetBeans
Originally posted 2005-07-05 11:31:39
I came across this post today via PlantEclipse:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/index.php?p=1546
It’s a long article–too long for me to read fully. The parts I read, however, which represent a significant portion of the whole, demonstrated that the authors:
- Didn’t know much about Java development, and
- Didn’t know much about JavaOne
Their premise, as I understood it, was that all the JavaOne talk focused on Eclipse, not NetBeans. Further, that developing Java applications in Eclipse encourages OS-specific applications, while developing Java applications in NetBeans does not. They must be Microsoft guys.
First of all, JavaOne had comparatively few Eclipse-oriented presentations. Second, most presentations that presented code in an IDE used NetBeans–and these weren’t just Sun people talking. Third, most Java developers, from what I can tell, develop web applications, which run on the server and have no windows or buttons and might target a specific application server, but almost never have OS-specific code. Finally, neither Eclipse nor NetBeans encourages OS-specific code. The closest Eclipse treads to this line is providing a library (SWT) that uses OS-specific code internally, but presents a completely portable API.
In other words, you can write Swing applications in Eclipse. You can write Swing applications in NetBeans. You can write SWT applications in Eclipse. You can write SWT applications in NetBeans. Through all this writing in both these IDEs, you haven’t done anything OS-specific or non-portable. Only if you defy the Eclipse team’s recommendations and peel back the portable API to get to the innards do you start writing OS-specific code.
Eclipse promotes no OS-specific philosophy, and NetBeans is going strong. I continue to cast my vote for Eclipse, and others continue to use NetBeans. Don’t expect either to disappear any time soon.