Generally speaking, Eclipse and Netbeans are both 100% capable IDEs for developing Java apps or working with Ant projects (or developing Ant). I personally use Netbeans. Most people start using an IDE and then continue to use that IDE forever. That is probably why your teacher used JGrasp - so that he/she did not bias you toward any of the major IDEs.
If you want to use what most people use, then use Eclipse. The numbers say that there are roughly equal numbers of users of both Netbeans and Eclipse but in my experience most people use Eclipse and I think that is mostly because it is the first IDE they used and stuck with it. The reason for that I think is because Netbeans was not in good shape when Eclipse started getting traction (around a decade ago). That gave Eclipse a huge boost. Netbeans got its act together shortly afterward and has been great ever since. Netbeans is the practically the official Oracle IDE for Java so you will get Netbeans-specific help from their Java tutorials. Fortunately, Netbeans does not require much training to use so there is not much to teach. My reasons for not using Eclipse are that (#1) I use Netbeans. My reasons for avoiding Eclipse are that I do not like the way it handles projects, compilers, strange classpaths, basically everything that it can piss on to make it its own, it pisses on to make it its own. That raises bugs and other issues. Beyond that, the numbers don't lie. It is popular so must be ok. The default Netbeans project structure was (and still is) based upon Ant if you create a project from scratch. It boils down to being an Ant project. Can't say the same about Eclipse. Netbeans also likes existing Ant projects created from outside of the IDE. But these days, most projects that I deal with are Maven. Netbeans works great with Maven. It leverages Maven without messing with it. In other words, what works in the IDE works on the command line and the other way around. Lastly, Netbeans is written in 100% Java and I really like that. I use it on Windows, Mac, and Linux with no issues. But try them all. It's up to you what you like. And these days, most companies let you use the IDE of your choosing. It is poor practice to make IDE-dependent projects so multiple IDEs are welcome in most places. L.K. -----Original Message----- From: Benjamin Spero [mailto:bensp...@yahoo.com.INVALID] Sent: Sunday, March 29, 2015 4:54 PM To: dev@ant.apache.org Subject: question about an IDE I’m new to the mailing list and I have something to ask. When developing java programs what do you think is a better IDE to use, Eclipse or Netbeans? I read somewhere on a website that Netbeans is developed from the Ant project. Is this true? I used jGrasp to develop my programs when I studied the basic java course. I notice that jGrasp is not used beyond the classroom. Why? I know my questions may seem fundamental but I’m just learning the ropes. I appreciate your help. Thank you, Ben --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org For additional commands, e-mail: dev-h...@ant.apache.org
