I am so happy to be working on Eclipse platform from past 5 years. I have been playing with eclipse 3.3 from past few weeks. With too many ads on java sites about the NetBeans 6.0 Beta release, i was intrigued to have a look into it. NetBeans does come in a variety of flavours and selectable modules. I found very similar categories that i see in Eclipse, i really liked the matrix of different downloads it has.
Following are some of the modules from NetBeans and i tried to give equivalent in Eclipse.
Java SE= Base IDE + Java SE [equivalent to JDT ]
C/C++= Base IDE + C/C++ [equivalent to CDT]
Ruby= Base IDE + Ruby [ Dynamic Language Tool Kit]
Mobility= Base IDE + Java SE + Mobility Pack [Embedded and Device Development ]
Web & J2EE= Base IDE + Java SE + Web & J2EE + GlassFish v2 + Tomcat [equivalent to WTP without GlassFish and Tomcat]
All= Web & J2EE + SOA + UML + Ruby + C/C++ [I dont know what to say…]
I anyway installed the “All NetBeans Pack” and some i could go through it with few humps. Any way finally it takes 500 mb of disk space. In the end i worked few hours on Net Beans to find out quick feature set and good things about the modern IDEs. I am definitely looking for features which are coming as best of both the worlds. I did see many applications built on the NetBeans platform too and these products were great. I saw many of the graphical editors on NetBeans.
Anyway following is the criteria where i was looking into both the IDEs…
Installation: Eclipse comes as a simple zip file which need to be unzipped. That’s it you are ready to use the IDE. NetBeans comes as an exe and during the installation time it asks for the JDK location. Some how i did not like this as it could have automatically taken from system settings as eclipse does.
Startup Times: I have tested both on a laptop with Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.6GHz and 1GB Ram. I have only an IE and Windows explorer programs opened. Eclipse WTP All in One SDK 2.0 could start in 20 seconds once i chose the workspace. NetBeans 6. Beta takes around 80-85 seconds to start up once the splash screen comes.
Source Code Editing: This is quite interesting time for me in both the editors. Both has Code Folding, Code Completion, Code Formatting, Instant Syntax Checks, Code Coloring, Syntax Highlighting, etc. In my view both IDEs have great tools for editing. I am writing these experiences from my Java Editor experience.
Even though i felt some of the functions like in NetBeans are little slow. Some times thay take long time before the code suggestions comes as a list. I am not sure if this is because this is a beta version.
Compile and Build : Both have good support for Compile, Build, Clean functions. Both have Save participants and of course who would not like this.
Debugging Support : Both do have the debugging support. But i am not sure how good is the NetBeans Debugging support, if some one wants to write a new debugger with the help of Net Beans.
Some how the debugging is not intuitive in NetBeans, i closed few example project that’s came along and had only my example project (by name com.simple.solutions.testnetbeans). When i invoke the debug action on NetBeans, it does take some time before some thing happens. I am also worried that each time i launch the degug, the Feed Runner application comes up. And i am perplexed in the same way as you are right now. In the end i do not have a good experience on Netbeans in debugging a simple HelloWorld program.
Refactoring: Basic refactoring techniques are present in both the IDEs. But Eclipse does have advanced refactoring functions. e.g. when extracting a method, eclipse does show how the method looks like. Some time it also suggests the input parameters for a method.
Version Control: Eclipse and NetBeans comes with a good Team support. Eclipse comes with CVS by default. Subversion plugin can be additionally installed. What i really liked about the NetBeans is that it has both CVS and SubVersion support by default.
Help System: Eclipse and NetBeans does have help system. I am slightly disappointed by the performance of the NetBeans. I have no clue what happens when i click on the “Help Contents” menu item. I dont see the mouse icon and there is a huge hard disk activity. I did feel that transition between the pages also takes some time.
Search System: For sure Eclipse does have a advanced search system. NetBeans have a file level an project level search and replace system. But Eclipse definitely have more than that. Eclipse has File Search, Java Search and Plugin Search. And i personally use these a lot and definately miss them in Net beans.
UI Response: What ever may be the reason, Eclipse is definitely faster and it has better response times than NetBeans. Of course its the matter of how i percieve when i do a particular action in the IDE.
Profiling: Awesome in NetBeans. I like this feature which is a part of NetBeans by default. Eclipse does have some profiling tools, but they need to be downloaded additionally.
Perspective: Last but not the least, this is some thing that i definitely miss in the NetBeans. Perspecives is a great concept interms of developement and also as when an application is developed. We often develop applciations for different users and in my experience, perspectives in eclipse does a lot more than pne can imagine.
In the end in terms of features both have good feature and qualifications as IDEs to improve developers productivity. For some of the obvious reasons, i feel that NetBeans need to catch up with performance and UI feel. NetBeans does not even show a wait state icon when some long running activity is happening. The Feed Burner example takes too much of time to start up and some how my experience is rugged.
Kudos to eclipse, for its wonderful nimbleness and flawless releases. There are some other categories that i did not consider as i am not sure if i can really compare this in NetBeans. Like the EMF, GEF, GMF, DTP, ATF, RAP, etc… Last but not the least, Workspace concept is some thing that i really like in eclipse. Not sure if there is an equivalent stuff in Net Beans.
Hello, I would like to know if there is a very nice tutorial for JSP/Servlet Web Development using Eclipse/Tomcat… The reason why I want to use NetBeans is primarily because of this http://www.javapassion.com/handsonlabs/webappstructure/#Exercise_1 But in reality I prefer to use Eclipse because I hear good news about it. Please let me know.. thanks!
Spiderman : You can see “http://safari.oreilly.com/0596007108/eclipseckbk-CHP-11”
I could not get a similar link in eclipse as you described with NetBeans.
But i see that its quite intuitive to develop with Eclipse (you need to get WTP plugin to do this)
Hi,
I am really surprised about your comparison. It is clear that you didn’t look at netbeans carefully. For example, in the refactoring section, netbeans integrate jackpot that brings very much power to refactoring in that IDE. I am not saying that Netbeans is better that eclipse, but it seems to me that your comparison is not objective. I invite you to read the last netbeans magazine that will brings much more information to this comparison.
Thanks
Very biased review. Eclipse is nice, but it falls short of NetBeans than the opposite. There are things in NetBeans that are mature and find no equivalent in Eclipse. NetBeans has excellent support for J2EE 5, Visual JSF/AJAX web development, awesome SOA/UML tooling, and good integration with Tomcat and GlassFish.
The Beta installs that I’ve run (Beta 1 and 2) both went on without a hitch. It gets the JDK from the system (default) but gives you an option to change which JDK you would like to you.
Just having all this functionality from a single source, in one convenient package is a huge boon for NetBeans over Eclipse. Personally, I don’t care that I have to run the installer – I rather prefer it.
Eclipse has a good editor, but unfortunately it’s way too big and slow to justify downloading it just for “it’s editing functionality”.
Both great tools, but it seems NetBeans is developing into a sort of Visual Studio for the Java community. Eclipse falls short in more than a few ways.
P.S. NetBeans starts faster after the first start of it. Maybe you should have run it twice?
nice article
well i would like to know if i can use Netbeans and Eclipse on the same project using SVN system.
since i have some areas where eclipse is great & some where netbeans is good.
but wen i tried using svn all the
Netbeans project info is also getting stored in the repository
maybe i am not aware of the SVN config in both the IDEs.
any help wouls be great
An unfair review from someone who knows very little about netbeans.
– In startup time comparison, it seems you have taken the time you run the IDE for the first time. Also you can disable modules you don’t need (Ruby, Mobile, C-C++, …) and your IDE will be very much faster.
– You have not even looked at 90% of the features comming with netbeans without even bothering to download and install a plugin. Netbeans provides a very good plugin manager in case you want to install something and it will download and install whatever you want.
– You have not even mentioned Matisse. This is the most important feature of Netbeans.
– Refactoring features and the totally new editor are not verified obviously.
By the way I am using Eclipse for very early version and it is my main IDE right now because of the performance issues of Netbeans.
Thanks for your feedback. I have been using NetBeans from time to time from 2002.
Its definitely have come very far in its features. I am aware of the Refactoring, Modular concept and finally the Matisse.
I did use Matisse for some time. Matisse builder definitely is very advanced.
Hi Mihir,
Sorry for late reply. Ideally you can use Eclipse and NetBeans for the same project.
But you need to use some extra plugins, so that the same project is compatible on both the IDEs.
I am not sure of the NetBeans but in Eclipse you can filter the data that gets into the SVN / Config System.
You can actually set them from Window -> Preferences -> Team -> Ignored Resources.
Thanks,
Krishna
Dude, if you like Eclipse, please all by means continue to use it. Nobody wants your biased opinions
From what i discovered using netbeans 6, it does have good feature, but very poor performance. even after increasing the heap memory in the configs, netbeans performance is very slow. Am running on dual core 2.66GHZ with 2gb of RAM………