Eclipse Java review: a custom development environment

There are two camps in the IT world: proprietary software and open-source. And if among commercial development environments IDEA (with open-source ambitions) is practically the undisputed leader, open-source IDEs are represented by the only favorite - Eclipse. It is often chosen by programmers who like to customize the development environment for themselves. What kind of IDE is this and what are its pros and cons? Let's figure it out.

About the IDE

The Eclipse Java IDE is an open source integrated development environment for the Java programming language, distributed and maintained by the Eclipse Foundation. Eclipse was originally created by IDE as a successor to the IBM VisualAge development environment. Despite costing the company $40 million to develop, the code became open source and IBM released the tool to the independent community for further development.

Terms of Use

Eclipse IDE is free, which gives it a big advantage. Any developer can install the latest version of this tool. Donations are, of course, accepted. Eclipse also has a paid version - MyEclipse, but this is more of a separate project built on top of Eclipse. MyEclipse offers a full-featured software development platform as well as additional packages. For example, MyEclipse Blue supports integration with the WebSphere family of products, and the Professional version implements advanced functionality for Enterprise development. Eclipse, unlike the paid version, is a core to which additional plugins are connected to create the IDE of your dreams.

Key Features and Tools

When using the terms “...the most popular tool...” and “...free...”, many people think that the IDE’s functionality is stripped down and supports a standard set of functions. This is wrong. Eclipse Java IDE is a full-fledged tool that has been adopted as a corporate standard by many large companies. During installation, you will be asked to select the desired development environment: There are many options in the menu, since the Eclipse toolkit includes more than just Java. However, in our case, the first two are interesting: for Java Developers and for Enterprise Java Developers. As follows from the description, the Enterprise option is suitable for developing Java and Web applications, tools for Enterprise development, JPA, JSF and so on. The current version of Eclipse at the time of writing is 2019-09 R (4.13.0). The basic functionality of the IDE does not depend on the type (EE or standard), but for serious projects you will need the Enterprise version, which will make life easier when developing such applications.

Writing code

The Eclipse editor looks simple and clear - a standard window for working with code, where the project structure and other parameters are displayed. When installed for the first time, the dark theme is activated by default. The light theme is not so pleasing to the eye, although this is subjective :) Also a nice feature: the standard library classes are imported automatically, the function is enabled by default. Eclipse has a useful QuickFix feature that helps you quickly fix a line of code. If you run QuickFix on line 14 of code: Trying to extract a value into a local variable: Using this function, you can perform any action: from simple extraction of a local variable to more complex operations.

Refactoring

Refactoring Java code in Eclipse is different than in IDEA. The point is that Eclipse lacks context awareness like IDEA does. This is noticeable when refactoring. The simplest example is changing the name of a variable. IDEA takes into account the name, type, value, names of previous variables of similar type and suggests a suitable name. Eclipse can't do that. If the user is used to “smart” refactoring in IDEA, it will take some time to get used to it. Otherwise, the refactoring procedure supports all standard functions. For example, interface extraction, safe delete and others (23 in total).

Debugger

The process of debugging an application in Eclipse is simple, the standard functions are intuitive, the debug menu displays the state of the variables and the current context:

GUI development

Eclipse has a visual editor for GUI elements, the Visual Editor, as well as a GUI compiler. The Visual Editor supports AWT/Swing and is available in Eclipse since version 2.1. This editor must be connected separately.

Web applications

To develop a web application, Eclipse has 30 different application servers, as well as additional connectors:

Tools

Among the Eclipse tools, it is also worth highlighting work with version control systems, auto-build, assembly systems, integration with the most popular frameworks, convenient work with additional file types (sql, html, js, etc.).

Pros and cons of using

Eclipse Benefits

Plugins

Eclipse is highly customizable thanks to easy plugin development. As already said, Eclipse is a kernel: when first installed, this IDE cannot yet be called a full-fledged environment. To do this, you need to install additional plugins, and then developing in Eclipse will become much easier and more enjoyable. Everyone can make their own IDE.

Price

It is not: Eclipse Java IDE is distributed free of charge.

Cross-platform

Any application written in Java has this benefit by default. Eclipse can run on any platform that has Java installed.

Workspace

In Eclipse, you can open multiple projects in one workspace, which makes it much easier to work with modular projects or partial code transfer from one project to another.

Documentation

Eclipse is a mature product that is popular all over the world, so it has a large documentation base in which there is a 90% chance of answering any question.

Interface design

There is no fundamental difference between the dark or light themes of Intellij IDEA and Eclipse interfaces, but many programmers say that Eclipse has a “professional interface that makes them feel like real developers.” This is a subjective plus.

Disadvantages of Eclipse

Plugins

Yes, oddly enough, plugins are both a plus and a minus. The fact is that if there are a large number of incompatible plugins, the IDE may crash and reinstallation will be necessary. This case is often found in large projects, and this feature is not indicated in the official documentation.

Unintuitive interface

Beginners risk getting lost in the jungle of the Eclipse interface. Eclipse is most often used by experienced programmers who want to customize the tool to suit their needs. This is possible thanks to the rich ecosystem of plugins and opportunities for their development.