Choosing the right IDE can make you or break you as a coder. Most developers would be lost without the comfort of their preferred IDE, which takes care of classpath, make files, command line arguments, etc. The problematic dependence on the IDE, while very beneficial, is off topic and a discussion for another post. We concentrate on 2 main platforms, Eclipse and Intellij Community Edition, comparing them, mainly in the Java SE context. Disclosure: Nadav uses Intellij on a regular basis, and Roi uses Eclipse.
Walking through history lane, Eclipse is around since 2001, while the real major release was Eclipse 3.0 in 2004. It began as an IBM project, but current members of the Eclipse Foundation range from Oracle to Google. Current release is Eclipse Indigo 3.7, and it is licensed under the Eclipse Public License. Intellij is part of the JetBrains, which was founded in 2000 as a private company. Intellij for Java was first released in 2001, and the Community Edition supports Java, Groovy and Scala, and its free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license.
We use Java as our main development language. Each developer chooses its own IDE. War between the IDE’s is waging around us, starting from our school days and University, and extends to our current workplace. While each side is certain in his righteousness, we believe there is no right or wrong answer, but rather choosing the right platform for your needs and challenges, taking into account the kind of programmer you are. We would like to share our own experience on when to use each. So here we go:
- Plugins: Eclipse marketplace offers 1,276 plugins, and the Intellij Plugin Repository offers 727 plugins. This difference is not to be taken lightly, since plugins for new technologies will usually be developed mainly for Eclipse (e.g. Android, Drools, Activiti, etc). Moreover, Eclipse is easier to extend. When working on a specific technology most chances are that if a plugin exists, it will be an Eclipse plugin.
- Multiple projects: This is an Eclipse winner for sure. It has the ability to open multiple projects in the same window, giving the coder control over dependencies and relations. Intellij has an option to open one project with multiple modules, but we found it to be cumbersome, and in times a little buggy. If you are going to use a lot of projects together and hate to switch windows, Eclipse is your choice.
- Multiple languages: We have stated that we will only examine the Intellij Community Edition that supports Java, Groovy and Scala. However, if you plan to create a Python server, combined with Ajax & Html, joint with a java web server, or any other exotic language combinations, than Eclipse is your choice.
- Code completion & inspection: While Eclipse has the ability to add plugins such as checkstyle, this one definitely goes for Intellij. The default code completion and assistance in Intellij is faster and better. If you are a rookie developer, Intellij can improve your code.
- Usability: Intellij user experience is much easier to grasp. The learning curve in Intellij is by far faster. It seems using Intellij makes developing easier and more natural. Dropdowns, code completion, quick view, project wizards, etc, are all possible both in Eclipse and Intellij, but the experience in Intellij is much more satisfying.
- Performance: The more plugins are installed on the IDE, the more heavy it is for your computer. However, saying that, Eclipse handles very large projects faster. Moreover, both of the IDE’s seems to be RAM junkies. Projects usually open faster in Eclipse, as Intellij indexes the entire project on startup, but while working on an existing project, Intellij works smoother. For example we have a huge SOAP project, which is impossible to work on with Intellij, so some of us even learn Eclipse just for that.
- Repository integration: Both of the IDE’s have SVN\GIT\etc plugins. No doubt Intellij’s plugin is more reliable, has better GUI and easier to use.
- GUI builder: We found that the built in Intellij GUI builder is more comfortable, and as mentioned above, usability wise its easier to learn, and more enjoyable to develop.
For a conclusion, a programmer should be able to find the right tool given a specific task. This means that one should be acquainted with both of the IDE’s, in order to face the challenge with the right tool.
