In order to successfully develop applications using OO languages such as C# and Java, one must use an IDE to compliment their skills, arsenal of books, bookmarked Web sites, and mailing list references. The diehard may turn up his nose at IDEs in favour of text editors such as Vi or Emacs but not even the father of Java, James Gosling (who also developed a version of Emacs), uses a text editor to cut Java code.
IDEs, when used correctly, can save a great deal of money, time and ultimately reduce technology risk. They can make the life of a developer far more pleasant by way of features such as refactoring engines, code optimisers, code support, powerful code navigation features, integrated debuggers, and more.
For this article we'll examine Borland JBuilder 2005, IBM WebSphere Studio Application Developer 5.1.2 (WSAD), Netbeans 4.0, Eclipse 3.0.1, and Sun's Studio Creator 4.26.
We tested the IDEs from the perspective of someone at the coal face of application development as well as from the perspective of application architecture or delivery management.
It should noted that there are other IDE platforms available. We've chosen these five IDEs for their popularity as well as overall capability but it's not to say that other IDEs on the market are not worthy. IDEs not tested include IntelliJ IDEA and the sound BEA Weblogic Workshop. While we could not fit every Java IDE into this article we strongly encourage readers to test these products to judge the best fit tool for you and your organisation.
Roundup Comparison Approach
It's worth noting at this point there are two important factors that need consideration beyond this review. They are, existing skills or access to IDE training and how well your existing technology mix interoperates and integrates with your chosen IDE to your Java/J2EE platform.
The six factors used for evaluating an IDE for its capability and robustness on a software project are shown in the table below.
The test workstation that was used to perform the comparisons is a notebook with a Pentium 4 3.06GHz processor, 1GB of memory and 5400RPM disk drive.
| Ease of use | To start, we evaluated how easy each tool was to learn and use, including an evaluation of the design environment itself, placement of commonly used items, and the general overall impression of the tool. |
| Features and functionality | How many valuable bells and whistles does the IDE provide? These include profiler support, debugger support, code completion, reflection engines, etc. |
| Performance | We tested how fast it was to move around each IDE, and how long compilation took. Whilst this can be driven by the hardware, there are elements of an IDE which can slow this down. Poor IDE performance is not only frustrating but can cost money. |
| IDE Plug-in support | Plug-in support is helpful if you want to build custom components for your software development project environment, or make use of third-party plug-ins available. |
| Licence and support costs | The bottom line is obviously important, especially when a project consists of tens or hundreds of developers. |
| Standards support | And finally, we look at the IDE in terms of incorporating Java standards. With a growing number of third-party application products on the market being distributed as JAR and EAR files, there is a need to ensure that all standards and specifications line up within your IDE. |
| Table 1: Evaluation criteria | |
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1
Stephen Wolff - 20/01/05
I went for Netbeans for cost reasons after trying most of the other IDEs. I found Eclipse not very useful for developing Tomcat/JSP2.0 Web apps. It isn't quite there yet - and nor is IntelliJ, both did not support the JSP2.0 specs - things like JSTL1.1 and EL.
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2
~Gregory - 25/01/05
You say in this section of the review, "Plug-in support for Netbeans exists but it’s hidden fairly deep within the Option menu." But. . . isn't that the point? Developers should only have to spend a little time adding what few extras/plugins they may need, but the majority of the time coding/developing. After a tiny bit of effort adding components, changing gears to develop, why would anyone need/want the ability to manage plugins any higher in visibility than it currently is?
For my money (2 cents, all I have LOL), I think NetBeans IDE looks fine.
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3
Jano - 26/01/05
Check Web Tools Project [www.eclipse.org/webtools] for aditional J2ee support in Eclipse 3.1M4.
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4
Garrick Cobcroft - 02/02/05
As someone who does an extensive amount of Java developement in both client side and J2EE projects, I have to say that none of the IDE's rated provide the UI development features necessary for delivering quality applications in workable timeframes.
Borland has had superior form design technology since the early 90's, but has still failed to add any of it into JBuilder, and the other tools are little more than fancy editors that happen to preempt what you are going to type next.
Having said that, my preference is a little know tool called inteRAD's build-IT. The editor supplied is not as good as Netbeans, but the speed of the IDE and the superior project management interface more than makes up for this.
IMHO, all IDE developers need to learn that its not about the editor, the focus is the application you are developing. Serverly lacking in both Netbeans and Eclipse for instance, is the ability to integrate the projects with other application lifecycle development tools.
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5
Mohamed Hagag - 03/02/05
I Realy belive that eclipse is more than the best , it's realy very good IDE but i have only 256MB RAM so it is very heavy performance IDE on my PC so I'm Using NetBeans 3.6 now
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6
Jim McSlim - 07/02/05
I can't believe you didn't include Intelli J's IDEA?!?!?!?!
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7
Vee Kay - 12/02/05
Never could move beyond vi. But I have been watching the growth of Java Tools including the IDEs like Eclipse. Have used that a bit and I guess it would win the market share race.
Vee Kay
http://javatools.blogspot.com
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8
Tarik Guelzim - 01/03/05
I've been using eclipse for about a year now and I think is one of the best IDE i've used so far.
NetBeans is good too however it's kinda hard to get arround from one menu to another as fast as you would in eclipse.
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9
Giordano Bruno - 01/04/05
SunJavaStudioCreator: JDBC-3 problems with rowsets?
I tried mySQL, postgreSQL and had problems with rowsets
So I tried embeddedPointbase which comes with SJSC
and had problems with the appserver8 which is bundled.
This product may be great in a year or 2.
try it out, you may have better luck.
30days free then $100 is cheap if you get it to work.
[dataTables may work better than Rowsets, since they are said to have a local cache]
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10
Anonymous - 05/07/05
Any survey of commercial Java IDEs that does not include IntelliJ IDEA is imcomplete. It has by the far the best re-factoring tools of any IDE I have ever used. Anyone using Eclipse should consider IntelliJ, as it is probably the most cost-effective of the commercial IDEs and has a thriving community to boot.
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11
Barbara Stewart - 18/08/05
Adam, I ran across your article on five IDEs tested and thought you might appreciate a copy of the MyEclipse 4.0 announcement. Unfortunately I don't have your email address. Please let me know if you are interested in receiving the news release.
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12
Jon - 13/02/07
Eclipse is much more popluar than ItelliJ by far at present.
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13
Duane - 02/03/07
I have been trying to get Eclipse working for me for about a week now, and it is the worst IDE experience I have ever had. Just trying to set it up to do anything beyond a simple J2SE / Swing application is like trying to set up your firstLinux box, circa 1998...a rat's nest of unresolved library dependencies and conflicts. And a modal update tool that prompts for a mirror for every package group? No thanks!
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