Intellij has a few features that I would have a hard time living without. Code inspection is probably the number one feature that is pretty amazing. You can configure it to check everything from warning about null pointers to unused variables to questionable practices (like an assignment in a conditional). When you have a green light, you can be reasonably sure that the code is clean from most basic problems. The autocomplete is the best I've seen in any IDE, and it allows matches on CamelCase by just typing the capital letters and brings up choices based on type inference. The version control integration is also pretty amazing; I think they could sell the change management and merging portion as a stand alone tool that would do really well on its own. Overall, IntelliJ lets me get into a flow with programming by making a lot of the warts of Java melt away. Sometimes it feels like it's almost writing the code for you and you are just giving it some direction. I know that some of these features have been implemented in Eclipse, but the way they all integrate so seamlessly makes IntelliJ a fun environment to code in. I miss these features in other languages that don't have an advanced IDE.

"I know that some of these features have been implemented in Eclipse, but the way they all integrate so seamlessly makes IntelliJ"

Sounds as if it's just what you are used to, not that one is better than the other. Back then when I worked with Eclipse, it did not seem full of seams, either.

Eclipse is a Blub IDE.

Edit: In case it wasn't obvious, I meant an IDE that you're just used to using, and that you think it's perfectly alright because you're not aware of better options.

I've got some anecdotal evidence to support this, so if you disagree, let's hear yours.

Have you really tried IDEA, and did you really not think it was better than Eclipse?

"Have you really tried IDEA, and did you really not think it was better than Eclipse?"

Yes and yes I did think it was better than Eclipse but I did not think it was better than Netbeans since 6.5 and on. I think the problem with IDEA is they are beginning to have trouble keeping up with the latest trends in the industry given that fact that a lot of those trends are coming out of open source it is natural that the open source IDE's will implement tooling before there closed source competitors.

That being said IDEA always felt more "bolted together" and consistent than Eclipse but the trade-off was always that they did not have tooling for some of the things eclipse did, so personally I would have to jump between the two.

Since Netbeans 6.5 and now 6.7 I have moved away from both as, for me, it has both covered well. It is polished as if it where build less by community and more by a driving vision. It also has a large community following implementing new tooling for the latest and greatest. Take the JavaScript tool-kits for example, Netbeans is the only IDE short of Aptana that I have seen, that implements code completion jsdoc inspection, code navigation, debugging, trace from JavaScript client, through server to database, etc. etc. for all of the major JS frameworks.

Anyway, long story short, IDEA is competing in a space that is becoming increasingly difficult to remain closed source. Especially when some of it's open-source competitors have caught up with it in it's mainstay, efficiency and usability.

Thanks for the tip! I'll have to try using NetBeans for Python.

I haven't tried IDEA because I wasn't willing to pay for it. Also I wonder if the plugin scene for IDEA is as alive as it is for Eclipse? Proprietary software always seems like a dead end, so I prefer not to invest time in learning it.

I definitely hear you about momentum. That's why the open-source move excites me. IDEA always just seems to be much better at navigating and "connecting" parts of a complicated codebase.

For example, in GWT, I can command-click (this is on a Mac) on a GWT style-name in a Java class, and it will bring me to the relevant part of the style in the CSS file. Same thing for Spring integration- it can connect all your code to your Spring XML config seamlessly. When you ask it "find all uses of this class/interface/member", it just does the right thing, whereas with Eclipse it often seems to miss things. Refactoring especially, in Eclipse seems to miss a lot of things that IDEA gets right.

I had the "misfortune" of having learned IDEA as my first IDE. So I am forever spoiled now. You could say that I am biased towards IDEA because it's what I learned first, and you'd probably be right to a certain extent. I tried on several occasions to migrate to Eclipse, with the intent of lowering the communication barrier between me and my colleagues. But each time I ended up going back to IDEA because it just works so much better at navigation. If you work in big codebases this becomes really important. Before IDEA I used to use Emacs and the command line exclusively.

Does anybody know if it has any Pythonic powers along the lines of pydev http://pydev.org/ ?

It does have basic Python support (I expect 9.0 to be better here) but really Wing is the gold standard for Python IDEs.

Really, wow, I'm surprised. What's not to like about pydev? I haven't used it that much and would appreciate your thoughts.

No, I don't think there is any Python support, but they do support some other languages.

Edit: After investigating further, it looks like there is an alpha-quality Python plugin, and eventually there will be full Python support, available in its own IDE or as a plugin for IDEA.

I can't answer for him, but I can answer for me. IntelliJ has key mappings that just make more sense. IntelliJ is somewhat better at completion and refactoring.

I use Eclipse, because I know that having really learned it, I can use it where ever I want, no matter where I work.

If you're trying to get work done, quality counts quite a bit. While Eclipse is a nice tool, IDEA is a professional tool that shows the attention to detail put into a professional-level product (better integration of aspects of the application, rough edges polished off, well-written docs, etc). If you're writing Java code professionally then IDEA is worth the money in time it'll save you 'over the long run.'

I find it more ergonomic, for lack of a better word. As far as feature-by-feature, it's much the same, although IntelliJ really stands out in some areas; off the top of my head:

- Javascript / HTML / CSS support

- Structural search-and-replace (imagine search and replace that actually understands code)

- Code completion and navigation for XML and properties files

...and more.