Doroteo, Drew R. EIT – 0121.

BSCHE 2-2 01/04/2021

Activity #1: Choose any 2 of the best Java IDE of 2020 and compare in terms of capabilities and
functions.

NetBeans and Eclipse are both considered some of the best Java integrated development
environments (IDEs) of 2020, each with unique features, pros and cons for specific purposes and
projects. Firstly, let us define the two IDEs individually, NetBeans is an open-source, free Java IDE with a
modular architecture which refers to the design of any system composed of separate components that
can be connected together, meaning you can replace or add any one component (module) without
affecting the rest of the system. The NetBeans Plugin Manager provides tools to manage features and
plugins provided from the programming languages to other users. Additionally, the NetBeans Editor
feature indents lines, matches words and brackets, and highlights source code syntactically and
semantically. It lets you easily refactor code, while also providing code templates, coding tips, and code
generators that are user-friendly especially for beginners. This editor supports many languages like Java,
C/C++, XML and HTML, to PHP, Groovy, Javadoc, JavaScript and JSP; this means the user can plug in
support for many other languages. NetBeans also has the widely used FindBugs tool, for identifying and
fixing common problems in Java code while simultaneously displaying a well-organized structure for
current applications so that you can efficiently manage multiple project windows at the same time. This
program is widely accessible, NetBeans runs on all major operating systems like Windows, Linux, and
Mac OS. It is an easy to install and gives skeleton applications and templates with sample applications to
help newcomers learn the different features or let developers save time by letting them start coding on
a skeleton project so that they don’t have to go through the process of implementing modules and pre-
written code themselves.

Meanwhile, Eclipse is also an open-source, free IDE with a modular architecture and arguably
the most popular IDE of the 2010s for professional industries. The Eclipse programming language
belongs to the Prolog family of languages and provides support for the development of many languages
but it is mostly focused on Java and C/C++ development. This system is also compatible to run on all
types of operating systems like Windows, Linux, and Mac OS (much like NetBeans) but also provides the
support for working on documentation and modeling using papyrus and provides tools for
implementation of UML, SysML, OCL, Git support, Gradle, Apache Maven etc. The Eclipse IDE is known
for its extended support for plugins such as EGit that allows you to download code from GitHub and
provides Git integration for Eclipse, Spring Tools (Spring IDE and Spring Tool Suite (STS)), Maven
Integration for Eclipse (M2E) to manage both simple and multi-module Maven projects and etc.

When comparing these two IDEs, NetBeans appears to be the more user-friendly IDE with easy-
to-understand drag-and-drop modules and handy plugins available to the user from the beginning while
Eclipse is an IDE for programmers with experience and Eclipse’s learning curve can be steep if you are
starting from little to no experience. NetBeans is a quick and easy IDE for simple and casual applications
yet Eclipse is an IDE made for enterprising level company projects. NetBeans is more stable than Eclipse
as with subsequent updates NetBeans is less susceptible to bugs and crashes and because of its large
plugin library, any installation of incompatible plugins can cause problems for your project. In conclusion
both NetBeans and Eclipse are reliable and consistent IDEs to work with, it just depends on the user’s
preference and/or the project you’ll be using the specific program for. In our case, as 2 nd year
engineering students, NetBeans would be the most viable choice as we are still beginners in this field.