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Eclipse vs Vim: What are the differences?
Introduction:
Eclipse and Vim are both popular text editors used for coding and programming. While they serve the same purpose, they have distinct differences in terms of features, usability, and customization options. This article will outline the key differences between Eclipse and Vim in a concise manner.
Ease of Use: Eclipse is known for its user-friendly interface and intuitive features. It provides a wide range of built-in tools, such as a debugger, compiler, and task runner, making it easier for developers to navigate and work on projects. On the other hand, Vim has a steeper learning curve due to its modal editing system and reliance on keyboard shortcuts. However, once mastered, Vim users often find it faster and more efficient for editing and navigating code.
Customization: Eclipse offers extensive customization options, allowing users to personalize their workspace, themes, and preferences. It supports a variety of plugins and extensions, making it adaptable to different programming languages and development needs. Vim, on the other hand, is highly customizable through the use of configuration files called ".vimrc" and numerous community-developed plugins. Users can tailor Vim to their specific workflow and coding preferences, enhancing productivity and efficiency.
Community Support: Eclipse has a large and active community with regular updates and support from the Eclipse Foundation. It offers extensive documentation, forums, and resources that help users troubleshoot issues and stay up to date with the latest developments. Vim also has a dedicated user community that provides support, plugins, and extensive documentation. However, Vim's community size may be relatively smaller compared to Eclipse.
Resource Consumption: Eclipse is a feature-rich IDE that requires a significant amount of system resources to run smoothly. It is known to be memory-intensive and can slow down older machines or those with limited resources. Vim, on the other hand, is a lightweight text editor that runs efficiently even on older hardware. It consumes minimal system resources, making it a preferred choice for resource-constrained environments or remote development scenarios.
Real-Time Collaboration: Eclipse supports real-time collaboration features in some of its versions, allowing multiple developers to work on the same project simultaneously. This functionality enables seamless collaboration and helps in reducing conflicts between team members. Vim, being a standalone text editor, lacks built-in real-time collaboration features. However, it can still be used in conjunction with external tools or plugins for achieving similar collaborative workflows.
Availability and Compatibility: Eclipse is available across different operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux. It supports a wide range of programming languages and framework integrations, making it versatile for various development environments. On the other hand, Vim is a command-line editor that is available on almost all platforms, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, and is compatible with most programming languages.
In Summary, Eclipse is a user-friendly and feature-rich IDE with extensive customization options and strong community support, while Vim is a lightweight and highly customizable text editor with a steep learning curve, efficient resource consumption, and availability on multiple platforms.
UPDATE: Thanks for the great response. I am going to start with VSCode based on the open source and free version that will allow me to grow into other languages, but not cost me a license ..yet.
I have been working with software development for 12 years, but I am just beginning my journey to learn to code. I am starting with Python following the suggestion of some of my coworkers. They are split between Eclipse and IntelliJ IDEA for IDEs that they use and PyCharm is new to me. Which IDE would you suggest for a beginner that will allow expansion to Java, JavaScript, and eventually AngularJS and possibly mobile applications?
Pycharm is great for python development, but can feel sometimes slow and community version has Somme very annoying restrictions (like they disabled jupyter notebooks plugin and made it premium feature). I personally started looking into VS Code as an alternative, and it has some very good potential. I suggest you take it into account.
The Community version of PyCharm is free and should give you what you need to get started with Python. Both PyCharm and IntelliJ are made by JetBrains. IntelliJ is initially focused on Java but you can get plugins for lots of other things. I subscribe to JetBrains' Toolbox: https://www.jetbrains.com/toolbox-app/ and have access to all of their great tools.
I couldn't imagine using a development tool other than the IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate All Products Pack. A single license allows me to work directly on my server running Ubuntu and/or my workstation running Windows 10 Pro simultaneously. My current project uses HTML, W3CSS, JavaScript, Java, Groovy, Grails, C, GO, Python, Flask, and Rust. For me it's worth every penny of the $150 license fee. And you can try it for free.
Hi, I will give my opinion based on my experience. I have used PyCharm, both community and Professional version. The community has limited functions, like you can't use a Jupyter notebook whereas it's available in the Professional version. PyCharm is slower compared to Visual Studio Code. Also Visual Studio Code is an editor which supports various languages. I myself have used both Visual Studio Code and PyCharm. I feel Visual Studio Code would be better choice. You may as well decide based upon your requirements.
I'd personally recommend Visual Studio Code as it gives you the flexibility of working in any language, so long as there are extensions to support it. It gives you the flexibility to learn Python, venture into Java, Javascript, and eventually AngularJS, and potentially mobile applications. It's also free and you can install it on your personal computer. I think Visual Studio Code would serve your intended use case best.
Visual Studio code is easy to use, has a good UI, and a large community. Python works great with it, but unlike some other editors, it works with most languages either by default or by downloading a plugin. VS Code has built in linting, syntax coloring, autocompletes (IntelliSense), and an api for plugins to do there own tooling.
IntelliJ really is the best for Java, I switched from eclipse years ago and never looked back. As for javascript, python and angular either using the standalone products from jetbrains (pycharm for python, webstorm for js) or installing the relevant plugins for InteliJ will be your best bet. Pycharm etc. are really just InteliJ with some additional plugins installed.
If you starting with Python then PyCharm is better. For Java I would suggest to go with IntelliJ IDEA but people also prefer eclipse so I would say try both and then decide. For JS/Angular/React I would suggest go with VSCode. I personally use it and prefer as its light weight and have good integration with chrome for frontend development.
PyCharm, IntelliJ IDEA are both products of JetBrains. They have a free (limited feature) and paid edition. Eclipse is free. VSCode is also free.
Pycharm is all you need to get start coding in python or any of its framework. Its an awesome tool you should give it a try :)
Easy to learn and everything you need
All three are great, however, I believe that IntelliJ IDEA's multiple IDE's are slightly more straight-forward and more up-to date than Eclipse. If I had to choose one specifically for Python projects I would go with PyCharm.
This is a very easy to use tool and gives you the opportunity to start coding right after the installation with almost everything setup automatically by the tool.
I originally chose IntelliJ over Eclipse, as it was close enough to the look and feel of Visual Studio and we do go back and forth between the two. We really begin to love IntelliJ and their suite of IDEs so we are now using AppCode for the IOS development because the workflow is identical with the IntelliJ. IntelliJ is super complex and intimidating at first but it does afford a lot of nice utilities to get us produce clean code.
Pros of Eclipse
- Does it all131
- Integrates with most of tools76
- Easy to use64
- Java IDE63
- Best Java IDE32
- Open source9
- Hard for newbews3
- Great gdb integration2
- Professional2
- Good Git client allowing direct stage area edit2
- True open source with huge contribution2
- Great code suggestions2
- Extensible2
- Lightweight2
- Works with php0
Pros of Vim
- Comes by default in most unix systems (remote editing)347
- Fast328
- Highly configurable312
- Less mouse dependence297
- Lightweight247
- Speed145
- Plugins100
- Hardcore97
- It's for pros82
- Vertically split windows65
- Open-source30
- Modal editing25
- No remembering shortcuts, instead "talks" to the editor22
- It stood the Test of Time21
- Unicode16
- VimPlugins13
- Everything is on the keyboard13
- Stick with terminal13
- Dotfiles12
- Flexible Indenting11
- Hands stay on the keyboard10
- Efficient and powerful10
- Programmable10
- Everywhere9
- Large number of Shortcuts9
- A chainsaw for text editing8
- Unmatched productivity8
- Developer speed7
- Super fast7
- Makes you a true bearded developer7
- Because its not Emacs7
- Modal editing changes everything7
- You cannot exit6
- Themes6
- EasyMotion5
- Most and most powerful plugins of any editor5
- Shell escapes and shell imports :!<command> and !!cmd5
- Intergrated into most editors5
- Shortcuts5
- Great on large text files5
- Habit5
- Plugin manager options. Vim-plug, Pathogen, etc5
- Intuitive, once mastered4
- Perfect command line editor4
- Not MicroSoft1
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Cons of Eclipse
- 2000 Design14
- Bad performance9
- Hard to use4
Cons of Vim
- Ugly UI8
- Hard to learn5