Re: Eclipse is part of what has rendered me so cynical
Would you care to support your opinion with facts or are you just spouting?
IDEs tend to elicit strong opinions – see any vi versus emacs debate.
My own main development is mainly in Python. I've tried Eclipse with the PyDev plugin and, like Thom, completely failed to understand it and moved on to something else. This might be the plug-in, it could be my incompetence. Doesn't really matter. Having had to help someone else setup a Windows machine I know how frustrating this can be and how such impressions colour our judgement. Having said that, sitting next to me was someone happily using Eclipse on Mac.
I've also tried PyCharm, which I believe is based on IntelliJ, and while it's got that usual, "unusual" Java look and feel I could get projects set up and run tests. I managed to disable some of the most annoying default settings so I can get it to work. However, I find I spend most of my time either in a dedicated (and paid for) Python IDE called WingIDE or one of a number of text editors with better support for other syntax and tools.
Of the novices I've come across I'd say that most that use an IDE prefer IntelliJ over Eclipse. I suspect this is due to things like those I mentioned above and an apparently lack of QA around plugins. IntelliJ has the Apple advantage of being able to decide what goes in and what doesn't. And I think Google felt the same about the studio.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
