So I’m still plugin away at materials and models for my game but coding is coming up on the horizon. When I was doing the tutorials earlier in the year I used the IDE provided with the SDK here and found it basically eclipse like with a few extra features to work better with jME in general and it got me thinking. Lately I’ve seen a number of posts about people using Eclipse and having issues with it and I had to wonder why would people choose Eclipse over the one provided here? At work I use Eclipse for our Java projects primarily because its free and there are no premade UI’s, or API’s available for the sort of stuff I work on at all. So I understand the familiarity angle a bit but jME doesn’t seem that big a quantum leap from Eclipse at all so I’m actually just curious why so many people seem hellbent on using Eclipse in the first place.
This isn’t meant to be taken as an accusation or anything of the sort I’m genuinely curious as to why people pick one over another.
Well the SDK is based on NetBeans so this is kind of a two part question going through one’s (or at least my own) head when making the decision.
1 - How do I feel about NetBeans vs. Eclipse?
2 - Do I need the jME related functionality?
From a usability standpoint, I find Eclipse much more viewable. Popup windows are easier to read, highlighting strategy in code editors feels more helpful, etc. I figure if I’m employing the use of an IDE to make my life easier, I might as well be able to read the thing comfortably.
I’ve got time invested in Eclipse. I’ve got all of my most useful hotkeys committed to muscle memory. For other items, I know exactly what I’m looking for in the preferences pages. I’ve also got my user libraries, different JDK&JRE’s setup, projects linked to other projects, etc.
For the second question, I mostly work on visualizations tools rather than pre-packed games. The only assets I bundle with my project on deployment are a few GUI stylesheets and skybox images… The jME-specific functionality doesn’t add anything in this particular use case.
That said, each one of those points are my own choice. I always have both installed and will occasionally jump into NB and try to familiarize myself more with it as there are some things I really like (especially in the jME SDK ;))
just use notepad
@sbook : So if I’m reading you right your going with Eclipse mostly due to familiarity and some visual stuff around the font used that makes it a bit more readable?
wezrule said:
just use notepad
Psch. Real men use Punch Cards to write games in jME. :P
But seriously. Do you actually just use notepad? That's kinda hard core.
lol Funny enough that video is kinda what spurred on this posted question a bit. 
alot of what sbook said applies to me, additionally jme now has stable branch and trunk in svn with eclipse its`a simply matter of “unplugging” my game from one to the other to check things out via project linking…but beyond that the fact that I chose to stick with eclipse is not for me an indictment on the usefulness or tools in jmp, its just that I am accustomed to one am familiar with its tools and features…for instance I’m using the in file search tools and “compare to” to figure out how to add light support in my shader the docs available otherwise aren’t really clicking with me at present
thecyberbob said:
@sbook : So if I'm reading you right your going with Eclipse mostly due to familiarity and some visual stuff around the font used that makes it a bit more readable?
Sounds petty? Yes. Meaningful to my productivity? Absolutely.
Righto. Thanks for your replies. I just wanted to see if there was any legitmate reasons beyond being contrary and giving Normen an aneurysm.
thecyberbob said:
But seriously. Do you actually just use notepad? That's kinda hard core.
i use notepad for web development :P, well notepad++, f*ck doing games in it :P
wezrule said:
i use notepad for web development :P
argh, you are crazy :P .
i’ll take that as a compliment 
mcbeth said:
its`a simply matter of "unplugging" my game from one to the other to check things out via project linking
Really, no sense talking about actual features, obviously this works in NetBeans too ;) I don't wanna argue about using Eclipse or NetBeans but there is really no difference in functions.. Except that theres no NetBeans keyboard layout selectable in Eclipse ^^
glaucomardano said:
argh, you are crazy :P .
@pspeed Also uses an external simpler code editor for coding java, without code completion and all that fancy stuff.. Simply because his typing abilities live up to his surname "Speed" and IDE's have issues parsing as fast ;)
yes, I imagine. Typing getters and setters all the time by hand is a big spend of time xD . But for Paul it’s normal . He is able to write a big Java Bean in seconds 
.
glaucomardano said:
yes, I imagine. Typing getters and setters all the time by hand is a big spend of time xD . But for Paul it's normal :) . He is able to write a big Java Bean in seconds :D .
This is sort of true though. I can type a Java bean in seconds. ;) Or I can use a macro in my editor. I can have code completion, too, I just don't. The feeling of typing in glue isn't worth it.
I've stood behind developers using code completion sometimes... "set" "setX"... hilarious. :) It's a super useful tool but much like debuggers... you have to be careful that it doesn't dull the senses.
I just don't like typing in modern IDEs. I like their features, but I always feel five keystrokes ahead while they are still spasmadicly popping stuff up behind me and highlighting stuff red that I haven't finished typing. And if I turn all of that stuff off then I'm left with a slow text editor... and I might as well go back to my beloved prgrammer's editor best friend. :)
It's not for everyone... but when you routinely have to use a variety of environments from nano through ssh to wordpad on a hobbled windows box, it's nice if you haven't lost all ability to think for yourself.
For the record: this is my best friend: MED - Programmers' Text Editor
I’ve been using him since OS/2 more than 15 years ago. I used to carry the install on a memory stick in my pocket with my preferred settings.
Actually I use jme in a double space enviroment, wee the server use a converted jme scenegraph, as you could imagine, the netbeans sdk is not too happy about that ^^ For clientside representation then the world is moved around the player, so next to the player is maximum accuracy. Aside from that I only use pregenerated assets, and using a assetloader is not the problematic in eclipse.
Also I like to multitask, so while waiting for the jme checkout, i can work on the other projects i have in eclipse, where no (official) netbeans plugin does exist for(gwt for example)