Eclipse

For those of you who don't know, 'Eclipse' is a programming tool (IDE) that makes managing larger Java projects a breeze. Even smaller Java projects benefit greatly from it, as the IDE is invaluable in keeping names consistent, especially when you start needing to use packages. Probably half of those who do know what Eclipse is would argue that NetBeans is better. While NetBeans may be better at laying out user interfaces, I prefer the snappy response of Eclipse when dealing with actual code.

Now, as good as Eclipse is once you've gotten under control, actually getting it under control can be a little daunting. There are some gotchas that the Eclipse development team seem to be overlooking (as of ver 3.1.2, anyway). Either that, or I am uncommonly blind. For instance:

- HOW do you provide feedback to the developers? (beyond blogging it like this)

- why is it not possible to see what workspace you're using?
couldn't this be visible someplace, w/o having to cancel out of a 'change workspace'?

- why does 'mark occurrences' only function in that annoying time-delay automatic mode?
how about an option to only change the marked word in response to ctrl-k, or something?

- why can't the package explorer offer something better than a flat list for projects?
ok, so java package names aren't directories; but my projects sure are!

- the 'Find/Replace' dialog doesn't offer to wrap back to the top once the end of the file
is reached, somewhat misleadingly reporting 'string not found'

Apart from things like that, I would give Eclipse 4.9 stars out of 5. For anyone learning to program these days, I would recommend going and getting Eclipse and the latest JDK from Sun (faster w/o NetBeans) if you don't already have one. Set up the JDK first, then unpack Eclipse someplace like C:\eclipse. I could probably be convinced to post the details of how to get set up in a future posting.