Question

I recently started using Eclipse at work for my Java servlet projects. I’ve been using jEdit for years, which is a uber-powerful text editor. It has syntax highlighting, but it doesn’t have any language-specific features like code completion and intelligent refactoring. I’m finding that’s hindering my productivity. I desperately want to like Eclipse. I really do. But I keep running into problem after problem.

1. Now that Eclipse can use an ant script to build, instead of just creating its own build environment from an ant script then ignoring any changes to it, I found some online guides and set it up. It doesn’t seem ready for prime time, though. My ant script builds fine from the command line, but I get all these build errors because I need to tell Eclipse all this stuff the build.xml already has in it, like the CLASSPATH, and where external jars are.
2. When I leave Eclipse running for too long, or sometimes after my laptop wakes up from hibernate, the UI starts breaking. For instance, the tabs on the editor pane disappear, so I can only edit one file at a time, and it doesn’t say which one it is.
3. We have faced several instances where classes weren’t rebuilt that should have been, leading to inaccurate line numbers in debugging walkthroughs and other unpredictable behavior (this isn’t just me; the two other developers trying it out with me are seeing the same thing).
4. I find it a huge hassle that the workspace is in a different place than my source code. I have other files I need to edit (xml files, etc), and for each directory I want to edit files in, I need to set up a special entry, and it doesn’t even default to where my source code is when setting that up.

Do others face these same issues?

Are there better alternatives?

Answer 1

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