Eclipse is Gaining Popularity

I've been using Eclipse as an IDE since early 2004 now. It seems to be really catching on. A supplement in SD Times recently had an article on its increasing popularity in the entire software development community, not just Java. 

"62.5 percent of software development managers reported that some or all of their developers use Eclipse--an increase from 53.9 percent a year earlier."

Most of the Java developers at Snowbound are now using Eclipse.

Here are some of the benefits:

• An extensive plugin interface that allows third party tools to be easily integrated. For example, When I want to do some performance testing, all I have to do is run my project using  "Profile"  menu that was added when I installed JProfiler on my machine. When I choose to run my application in this way, JProfiler is automatically launched. By the way, JProfiler is an excellent tool for performance tuning. It pays for itself after only a couple of sessions.

• A lot of previously tedious tasks are done for you. Import statements at the top of a Java class can be automatically neatly organized. Getter / Setter Methods can be automatically generated. Required methods of implemented interfaces are automatically stubbed for you.

• I can define my preferred formatted and coloring / or bolding of code. Member variables can be bold, static constants can be gold, etc. Everything is indented exactly how I want in a single keystoke.

Eclipse's annual exhibition, EclipseWorld, will be held in Cambridge in September 06.

-Alex