Introduction
From this article we will learn some of the common differences between the most popular IDEs, NetBeans and Eclipse. There are many similarities as well as differences between both of these IDEs.
NetBeans IDE
NetBeans is considered to be a platform for building applications that can be in any of the following programming languages:
- Java
- C/C++
- Ruby
- PHP
- XML
- JavaScript
It is a software devlopment system that meets the expectations of the user or the programmmer. This IDE is free and is open source that makes the large community to rely on it.
Eclipse IDE
Eclipse is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
It is the leading development environment for Java and is used by about 65% of the market.
The Eclipse IDE provide intutive editing, code-generation and debugging support for the following languages:
- C/C++
- Assembly languages
- Java
The various software components in Eclipse are known as plugins. Eclipse is extended to develop standalone applications for the benefit of companies.
Similarities of both IDEs
Some of the similar features of NetBeans and Eclipse are:
- an auto complete option for Java code, in other words one can select from the options opened instead of typing the entire text.
- pointers on debugging and optimizing code
- finishing the task faster than eny traditional text editor.
Differences in both IDEs
For Java development their are mainly two IDEs; they are:
Eclipse is associated with IBM but NetBeans is a product of Sun/Oracle. The question arises that, which IDE is better than the other, is wrong in my opinion, since it depends on the individual to make the decision of which IDE is better for them. It is totally based on the user's preference. Eclipse is capable of serving as an application framework and a good development platform for Java and for even non-Java languages like:
- C/C++
- Perl
- Python
- Shell scripting
When using the NetBeans IDE platform we will be using an official standard toolkit, that is Swing. Whereas Eclipse makes use of SWT. Using Swing is more advantageous than using SWT in the following ways:
- there are thousands of third-party libraries available in Swing, in other words it makes it easy to integrate into NetBeans Platform Aplications.
- SWT lacks wide ranging support and has less third-party libraries to select from.
There are a huge number of plugins delivering capabilities that are not necessarily available with NetBeans. These plugins are not reliable due to a lack of quality control. To retain customer loyalty Eclipse should control these plugin issues.