Hacker News Reader

Comment by bayindirh | Hacker News Reader

Yes. However, today's Eclipse is only similar in appearance to its former self (I'm using it since 2002).

Has its own JRE bundled, and uses that one if you don't have any JRE installed.

Has a stable release every three months.

Starts in 5 seconds, uses ~600MB of RAM (less than VSCode!), and works very snappy.

Supports web development, C/C++, Python, remote execution and much more. Plus it has the best Git integration I have seen ever (incl. GitTower + Kaleidoscope).

In C/C++ land integrates directly with debuggers, Valgrind, etc.

The trick is, it didn't get bloated or heavier over the years, the contrary, and draws circles around everything in its class. Plus it has modern amenities like LSP support, synchronization between installations, etc.

Oh, and you can migrate it with two small XML files. Preferences and software configuration.

View on HN

I admit that I haven't tried Eclipse in forever (since I'm firmly a JetBrains fan) but your comment prompted me to at least kick the tires on it again

After navigating to https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ choosing the big Download button, and but then after launching Eclipse Installer it asks me if I want Java, Enterprise Java, C++, Embedded C++, PHP, or a bunch of inside baseball stuff. I typed python in the search bar and it laughed at me. Based solely upon the description, it seems that one would have to use PHP for "web development"

Since I wasn't able to try out its Python support, I figured web development was the next best experiment. After a bunch of Next buttons, I created a .ts file, right clicked and chose Run. It opened a error dialog saying an "Internal error" had occurred. Only by diving into the details did I find "Cannot invoke java.io.File.getParentFile() because tsConfigFile is null"

But, no problem, I'll just commit this file and work on that later. Oh, wait, how do I commit the file again? There's no "Git" in the context menu. Hmm, typing git in the Help > Search offers "Show in Git Repositories", which has "Create a new local Git repository" Excellent, click that. It now offers a completely different path than the "workspace" that it asked me to pick when starting. So it's going to create a repo outside of where the files are? That's weird. But, I'm a sport. All that machinery and still no "Commit" anywhere to be found, even in Help > Search

I am not saying all of this because I think that you are Eclipse tech support, I'm saying that their DX is still stuck in 2002 so I'm glad it works for you but it absolutely does not hold a candle to modern IDEs

Eclipse is a platform, not a set of IDEs you have to install differently. What you have downloaded and installed is a “starting point”. My installation has all the functionality in a single installation.

Eclipse has two ways to install more features marketplace and “install new software”. Both are integrated to every Eclipse package you download. Python is provided by PyDev under marketplace.

Eclipse handles VCS globally and puts every VCS to their own folders. VCS features are tucked under “Team” menu. “Share Project” is what you want.

When you share a project it’s moved to its VCS folder, that’s true, but the project doesn’t disappear from your workspace view. You continue working from the same point.

Git management has its own view (called a perspective), reachable from top right. This perspective allows to manage any git repository regardless of they are your projects or not.

Eclipse has a different workflow than other tools, but I don’t find it backwards (I use BBEdit, KATE, Git Tower and countless others), every tool has a different take and that’s OK.

If you import a project from git directly, Eclipse works the way you expect.

If you still want to discover Eclipse, I can support you. If you don’t, there are no hard feelings. It’s a tool which has its own ways (like Vim, EMacs, XCode and VSCode and others). This doesn’t make it backwards, but different.

I appreciate you responding, although I actually was trying to save you the trouble by saying that I wasn't asking for tech support - it was more that I was using your comment as a contextual mini-blog/rant place to warn off others

That's because I'm cheating you: I knew about the marketplace, although Eclipse's "p2" concept drives me stark-raving when trying to setup a new instance on a machine. What I'm saying is that my life experience with Eclipse has been it is the "well, here are some components, build yourself an excellent IDE from them!" in the most user hostile way possible. It feels like the same committee that generated the Rational Unified Process got into making software. Architectural astronauts, using OSGi, to ensure than everything works on a presentation slide and nothing works when trying to run it

https://marketplace.eclipse.org/comment/8289#comment-8289 is a representative example of the same experience I've had with the "Eclipse ecosystem," showing it's not just me but a systemic problem with their release management discipline

Thank you; you just saved me 30min from testing it again, hoping it had dramatically improved. What you described is exactly how I remember it, from two decades ago.

Well, it has dramatically improved, but breaking prejudices is hard, as far as I can see.

I understand that the flow isn’t similar to what people expect, but what it provides is vastly superior to many tools I have used.

IMHO, if people can justify the time spent for learning Vi or EMacs or any other tool, it can be also justified for Eclipse.

Either way, there are no hard feelings. I’m just a messenger.

This does sound nice. I used Eclipse a bit 4 years ago for Java, and I switched to IntelliJ and found it to be much more usable and feature-rich, however. I don't know how much has changed since then, though.

> Has its own JRE bundled, and uses that one if you don't have any JRE installed.

> Starts in 5 seconds, uses ~600MB of RAM (less than VSCode!), and works very snappy.

> The trick is, it didn't get bloated or heavier over the years, the contrary,

...and you're mentioning these features as points in Eclipse's favour ... when comparing it to vim?!?!?

I think you forgot the "/s"

No I’m comparing it to VSCode at that instance.

I also use Vim a ton every day (both remote and local). While it’s a neat editor, it’s not an IDE.

The only place I compare it to Vim is the learning curve part, and learning curve is not related to system requirements.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com