Does anyone here use ECLIPSE ?

[bromberg]

I stumbled upon the ECLIPSE website and it looks promising. I'm in the market for a free IDE but so far I only write simple programs for my amusement/edification and don't intend to distribute my code for an enterprise or anything full-blown. Is ECLIPSE for me or is it overkill? I thought I saw where it was over 60 Meg and many IDEs I've seen are around 2 Meg. What is that 60 Meg really buying me?
Thanks,
Danny

 

[sedj]

>> What is that 60 Meg really buying me?

Nothing, cos its free !

Eclipse is good. Its a stack load quicker than forte ot jbuilder.

 

[bromberg]

Not much help in answering my question but thnx anyway.
Danny

 

[stoolpigeon]

I just started using eclipse in the last week or so. I am a novice to java. I have used jbuilder mostly in the past (when I took a couple java classes) and I've looked at forte. I've found that eclipse is pretty nice. I'm not doing anything huge either.

Since eclipse is designed to handle all kinds of programming tasks- you get a lot of stuff. I think that if you work with it and learn what you want/don't want- you can slim it down yourself.

Those are my first impressions of it. You certainly can't beat the price.

 

[JVZ]

What is that 60 Meg really buying me?

Well mostly a lot of feature that you may or may not need, i.e.:
concurrent versioning system (CVS).
ANT
improved debugger
Tools for refactorings your code
SWT - IBM's version of Java's AWT and Swing class libraries for user interface development.
UML plugins
and some other tool... (Check the website out for the complete list of features.

If you are starting out (or playing around)...I think something like text pad (

http://www.textPad.com

- A simple text editor)/of JEdit (another text editor) should do the trick...they both are not really fancy...but help in formatting you code...and add color...plus they are small downloads.

Does this help?

 

[bromberg]

JVZ & Stoolpigeon:

Yes, your comments are of help. I've used JCreator as an editor which always suited my needs for simple Java programs. Since I've seen ECLIPSE in the weekly Java newsletters I subscribe to, I'm tempted to give it a go. Thanks to your impressions, I think I will.
With appreciation,
Danny