I think, eclipse is a very good programming tool... It's an open-source project and some friends said it wouldn't be good because it's free . What do you think?

I like it very much !

More information on Eclipse - official page!

I took my first semester Java (spring '05) we used BlueJ as our compiler/editor. It worked ok but had some printing issues and was also a very stripped down program. Eclipse was recommended by our Prof. so I tried it. I liked it much better than BlueJ. The learning curve is much steeper for Eclipse but has many more features, there are also some new plugins. I tried working with the UML diagramming but ran out of time as finals were coming up. Also my Prof. stated that it looked like the IT dept. was going to drop BlueJ for Eclipse this next semester. I am scheduled to take Java 2 this fall and therefore will learn Eclipse much better.

mmkropp

Netbeans is open-source too. And I do not agree with the idea that open-source stuff is not good. It depends on who create it and who are involved. And also its community will properly tell something about it.

I started with Netbeans before Eclipse and found that Netbeans is very easy to use. I had almost no difficulty at the beginning. It didnt go that way with Eclipse. Before trying Eclipse, I heard people talking about it and the point was that it runs faster than Netbeans (wow, it took my attention). In deed, Netbeans was so slow, and not even much faster at version 4.1. I downloaded Eclipse and it disappointed me at the first time. They are as slow as the other.

The speed is quite all right when none of them could approve they are better than the other. So, take a look at their friendliness. I bet that most people could say Netbeans is nicer, well-layouted and well-organised. Ok, if you dont have them installed on your computer, you can have a look at their website. It would tell you something about their products.

• Netbeans: http://www.netbeans.org
• Eclipse: http://www.eclipse.org

One of the points that made me not to use Eclipse is whenever I change workspace, it restarts itself (this is so frustrating). Even though it starts a bit faster than Netbeans but I'm really not happy with it.

In Netbeans, if you dont install any add-in rather than its installation files, it starts up fine.

Then I go for Netbeans which has everything I need to develop Java applications.

Eclipse lovers could have their own reasons but I have read it somewhere said that heaps of Eclipse developers are moving to Netbeans or use both products at the same time.

What do you think?

I use eclipse on my studies and in work and I'm totally satisfied. dungsport has wirtten about Netbeans, this is good tool too. In my opinion next good IDE for java is IDEA(http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/) . You can use it for free when you create some study work or open source project.

When I've worked with eclipse
Big disadvantage with eclipse is that this tool doesn't have good web plugin, but latelty I have found some good plugin for html/xml/jsp editing and for struts and jsf:

http://amateras.sourceforge.jp/cgi-bin/fswiki_en/wiki.cgi

I don't know anybody who used eclipse and then switch to netbeans... for me netbeans have too many features which I don't use , but this is only my opinion and someone else would prefer this situation.
I have found information that next jbuilder wil be integrated with eclipse platform.
http://www.borland.com/us/company/news/pre...ct_roadmap.html

I have been using Eclipse for over an year now and am very comfortable with the tool. It is one of the best IDE even taking into account a few of the commercial ones also.
It is a freeware and moreover does not eat away too much of memory, ie. light on system load.
The number of plugins available for eclipse make it more flexible in terms of usability as only those plugins that are required can be put in and used thus reducing load..

Cheers,
Himanshu

I have Netbeans and Eclipse, both looks nice, and both works perfectly, the good thing about Java IDEs are that they actually correct your spelling when you spell something wrong. Which I usually have a problem when programming in Turing. The only way to know I spelled something wrong in Turing, I have to test the app in order to notice the spelling mistakes.

xboxrulz

Check out the WTP 1.0 for Eclipse, which offers web development capabilities to Eclipse. (I don't have the URL, but just do a search on google for it).