I just downloaded the latest MyEclipse 5.0 GA and it is smooth like buttah. I've been using their milestone releases and I'm not sure exactly why, but it just feels better. Currently I have a dual setup with MyEclipse and Rational Software Architect, and I must reiterate, that there is no comparison. Granted, one is running off the older eclipse core, but still, given the price that we have to pay for it, one would expect a better experience.
I've also downloaded the latest netbeans, and it just doesn't have that nice new car smell to it. Maybe I've just grown lazy and accustomed to the eclipse environment. Visual Studio 2005 still beats everything hands down from an IDE perspective. I think as a community, Java IDEs have come a long way, but not nearly enough. The new Matisse port of MyEclipse will definitely prove handy, but I still have to wonder why its taken so long to get what VB users have taken for granted for so long. I still whole heartedly believe that the Java desktop has been incredibly ignored by Sun.
My original blog about MyEclipse from March of this year is below:
<snip>
The latest release of the MyEclipse ide is simply fabulous. After toying around with the javascript editor, tears of joy almost sprang from my weary eyes. I still use the commercial ide which is still based on the eclipse 3.0 core (hint hint, pls update this big blue) but find myself working more and more on myeclipse. The time saved alone from having to integrate all of the features I need is definitely worth the subscription price. Definite kudos to the myeclipse guys/gals. Tweaking my interest is the matisse port. I've always been pretty disappointed in java visual editors. The last time I tried the visual editor in eclipse the experience was quite painful. A few years ago (2003) I gave a keynote speech at a conference for technology in financial services hosted at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou China. While doing some last minute research I read that Scott McNealy was in town, just a few hours away opening up a center of excellence in Shanghai.
I've also downloaded the latest netbeans, and it just doesn't have that nice new car smell to it. Maybe I've just grown lazy and accustomed to the eclipse environment. Visual Studio 2005 still beats everything hands down from an IDE perspective. I think as a community, Java IDEs have come a long way, but not nearly enough. The new Matisse port of MyEclipse will definitely prove handy, but I still have to wonder why its taken so long to get what VB users have taken for granted for so long. I still whole heartedly believe that the Java desktop has been incredibly ignored by Sun.
My original blog about MyEclipse from March of this year is below:
<snip>
The latest release of the MyEclipse ide is simply fabulous. After toying around with the javascript editor, tears of joy almost sprang from my weary eyes. I still use the commercial ide which is still based on the eclipse 3.0 core (hint hint, pls update this big blue) but find myself working more and more on myeclipse. The time saved alone from having to integrate all of the features I need is definitely worth the subscription price. Definite kudos to the myeclipse guys/gals. Tweaking my interest is the matisse port. I've always been pretty disappointed in java visual editors. The last time I tried the visual editor in eclipse the experience was quite painful. A few years ago (2003) I gave a keynote speech at a conference for technology in financial services hosted at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou China. While doing some last minute research I read that Scott McNealy was in town, just a few hours away opening up a center of excellence in Shanghai.
I mentioned this during my speech, as well as an interesting experience I had a few weeks prior after receiving one of Sun's marketing brochures: 'Inner Circle'. In the email, there was a link to send a comment to the CEO. Thinking he'd never read it, I basically went on about how Java on the desktop wasn't getting enough food and water, and what an opportunity is being missed to bring a richer experience to the user. Amazingly, I received a short reply from McNealy the next day, with Schwartz and someone else who headed the desktop initiative in the cc. There was a short follow up, but 3 years later, I'm still shaking my head.
After seeing the latest FABridge to integrate javascript in the browser with the Flex runtime, I still drool at the thought of having a better experience writing a thick/fat/rich/whatever client in Java with the simplicity and the slickness that other tools provide. Is it just me? Has anyone else seen how simple it is to define and bind really nice visual controls in Flex? Yes, I know, there is this XUL project and that XUL project. We even have something incredibly slick that a very smart architect developed inhouse, but still. Should we even have to jump through all of these hoops so we can deliver a better experience to the user for Java on the machine, outside of the browser? Sun, pls give us something more. I don't just want a nice visual editor, even if it doesn't monkey with the generated code so much. I want to be able to do in Swing what I can do in Flex, dojo, VB.net, whatever. Even eclipse RCP, although powerful, is just more complex than needed to be able to whip these types of applications up. Its 2006 already, let's get a real framework for swing based, fully networked applications rolling, without having to do JAAS, complex threading, anything. I just want network access and something that the business guys won't look at and go "ick". We still have to resort to buying skins and themes from third parties, just to go to the dance in a proper dress (ala Synthetica)
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