Builder AU: Five Java IDEs Tested
Builder AU has an article where they compare five of the more popular Java IDEs available. The IDEs on test are Eclipse 3.0.1 with MyEclipse, Websphere Studio Application Developer 5.1.2, Netbeans 4.0, Sun Studio Creator 4.26, and JBuilder 2005.
At the beginning of the article they list the criteria that they are going to use to compare the apps and the platforms on which they did the testing. However, this is really the last time that you hear of these requirements. The rest of the article is highly subjective and really of no use. Sure, they do a good job of identifying the positive aspects of each IDE, but that is all that they do. None of the reviews list any form of quantitative evidence as to how each IDE performed. Although each review does contain a score at the end. But even here, the scores all hover around 25/30. As a critical review of each IDE, the article sucks.
In addition, probably the benchmark for Java IDEs, Intellij IDEA, was not reviewed. Every unofficial/personal review of IDEs that I have ever read almost always has IDEA coming out on top. So what is the value of writing a review of IDE applications and not including IDEA?
The article is an interesting read though and it does provide an excellent overview of each IDE. Just don’t expect a critical review complete with quanitative evidence and well defined metrics that clearly show one IDE winning out over all the others. But if you just want in introduction into each program, then definitely read the article.