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You know, I just don't get the love for IntelliJ. I used to use Eclipse (or more often than not Spring Tool Suite) and I rather liked that. More and more I'm ob

You know, I just don't get the love for IntelliJ. I used to use Eclipse (or more often than not Spring Tool Suite) and I rather liked that. More and more I'm obliged to use IntelliJ and in comparison it just seems ... okay. Its suggestions stuff is nice, and it works reasonably well. In particular it supports multiple languages much better than Eclipse's motley range of plugins. So I can see why your list of uses makes it the superior option there. But for primarily Java development, which is where I encounter it and the most vocal love for it, it lacks a couple of key features (or non-obvious configuration to enable them I guess?) * You can't run code unless the whole project compiles (poor for quick sanity check, test driven development, and refactoring breaking changes). * You don't get the "problems" view of compilation issues (and optionally analysis output like findbugs) so as often as not I'll try to run a test, building the whole shebang, when the end result will be needing to fix a trivial syntax error. Eclipse tells me that first. * It's a pain to use when working with multiple (source independent) projects simultaneously. E.g. a library project and the main project. Eclipse lets you open anything you want to in the same window and presents them in the same explorer view. It also, anecdotally, feels slower than Eclipse, and seems to enjoy popping up focus-stealing windows more often than Eclipse (though I guess I can cuss Gnome just as much for that one). I don't hate it, but I do miss Eclipse. Edit: I should add that it supports Gradle rather better than Eclipse does, but since I really dislike Gradle I'm not sure how much of a plus that is!

exikyut 6y ago
I wonder if IDEA gained traction after Android Studio switched to it?
- dcminter 6y ago
  That's not the impression I get; it seemed to become super popular when Android was still on Eclipse (but I'm not an Android dev so a little hazy about the timelines).
  - exikyut 6y ago
    Huh, well I certainly didn't know that (I've only just started playing around myself).
    - dcminter 6y ago
      Ok, so according to Wikipedia, "Googles' ADT was the official IDE for Android until 2015 but was replaced by Eclipse's Andmore and the official Android Studio." So I was slightly incorrect in that there seems to have been a name change at the same time (as I say, I'm not an Android dev, so I didn't know that). I was definitely seeing IntelliJ in use, and hearing a lot of praise for it circa 2011 - 2013, so it does look to me like the love for it precedes the Android dev environment switch.
lma21 6y ago
> You can't run code unless the whole project compiles (poor for quick sanity check, test driven development, and refactoring breaking changes). What do you mean by _running_ specific parts of the code? Isn't this a language problem (compile all dependencies (classes) to byte code, package .class files in jar files, define the main class, define the classpath, and then run)?
- thu2111 6y ago
  Eclipse uses a special compiler that can compile code even if it's got errors. Parts of the code that don't compile get compiled to just a stub that throws an exception. Some devs really like this. I never really encounter it as a problem because for any refactoring, I prefer to use IntelliJ's refactoring tools that ensure all code (that's in your project at least) gets rewritten in the same moment the refactoring occurs.
  - adrianmsmith 6y ago
    > IntelliJ's refactoring tools that ensure all code (that's in your project at least) gets rewritten in the same moment the refactoring occurs That's the same as Eclipse (e.g. rename method), right? What's the benefit of IntelliJ here?
    - dcminter 6y ago
      Pretty much. They both have refactoring operations, but they're a slightly different set. (Edit: Some of the IntelliJ operations are distinctly superior to the Eclipse ones. But not all. In my experience I'd say they're about even here.) For example, in Eclipse it's trivial to take an inner class and move it to its own file. In IntelliJ that doesn't seem to be an option. And that's a breaking change if I do it manually, which is where the Problems panel is so useful. Not forgetting TDD where in Eclipse I can write multiple tests for a feature before any code exists and run them before the unit I'm testing even fully compiles! For example, in this screenshot one of the methods the test class invokes doesn't exist: https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_run_broken_code.png https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_run_broken_code.png
davet91 6y ago
> It's a pain to use when working with multiple (source independent) projects simultaneously. E.g. a library project and the main project. Eclipse lets you open anything you want to in the same window and presents them in the same explorer view. That's a common confusion about IntelliJ. Eclipse Workspace -> IntelliJ Project Eclipse Project -> IntelliJ Module In IntelliJ create an empty Project and import all your Maven or Gradle projects as Modules. Everything in one window :)
- dcminter 6y ago
  I will try this and report back :) thanks for the clarification! Edit: Ok, report. It's... close enough. I don't really like the need to create a new project to contain the "IntelliJ droppings" :) but honestly that's not that different from Eclipse's workspace directories. Thanks for the tip!
thu2111 6y ago
There's a problems view! It's a bit hidden though. Go Help -> Find Action, type "Problems" and hit enter. You can also get to it by clicking the little red or yellow square in the top right of the editor.
- dcminter 6y ago
  Thanks, but it's not really the same thing (unless there's another feature somewhere). Take a look at this comparison: https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_vs_idea_problems.png https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_vs_idea_problems.png In IntelliJ I can invoke this gizmo for the file I'm in, but it reports the problems for that file. It doesn't tell me where else the problems are. If I do a build I typically get a handful of compilation errors until the build gives up. In Eclipse, by default, I get the Problems view. It lists all the compilation issues it knows about in the entire project(s). Because Eclipse does incremental compilation I get to know about issues in a totally different file immediately. I also see stuff like config file errors in the same panel. It's really neat. IntelliJ may have this feature somewhere, but this doesn't seem to be it.

exikyut 6y ago

I wonder if IDEA gained traction after Android Studio switched to it?

dcminter 6y ago
That's not the impression I get; it seemed to become super popular when Android was still on Eclipse (but I'm not an Android dev so a little hazy about the timelines).
- exikyut 6y ago
  Huh, well I certainly didn't know that (I've only just started playing around myself).
  - dcminter 6y ago
    Ok, so according to Wikipedia, "Googles' ADT was the official IDE for Android until 2015 but was replaced by Eclipse's Andmore and the official Android Studio." So I was slightly incorrect in that there seems to have been a name change at the same time (as I say, I'm not an Android dev, so I didn't know that). I was definitely seeing IntelliJ in use, and hearing a lot of praise for it circa 2011 - 2013, so it does look to me like the love for it precedes the Android dev environment switch.

lma21 6y ago

> You can't run code unless the whole project compiles (poor for quick sanity check, test driven development, and refactoring breaking changes). What do you mean by _running_ specific parts of the code? Isn't this a language problem (compile all dependencies (classes) to byte code, package .class files in jar files, define the main class, define the classpath, and then run)?

thu2111 6y ago
Eclipse uses a special compiler that can compile code even if it's got errors. Parts of the code that don't compile get compiled to just a stub that throws an exception. Some devs really like this. I never really encounter it as a problem because for any refactoring, I prefer to use IntelliJ's refactoring tools that ensure all code (that's in your project at least) gets rewritten in the same moment the refactoring occurs.
- adrianmsmith 6y ago
  > IntelliJ's refactoring tools that ensure all code (that's in your project at least) gets rewritten in the same moment the refactoring occurs That's the same as Eclipse (e.g. rename method), right? What's the benefit of IntelliJ here?
  - dcminter 6y ago
    Pretty much. They both have refactoring operations, but they're a slightly different set. (Edit: Some of the IntelliJ operations are distinctly superior to the Eclipse ones. But not all. In my experience I'd say they're about even here.) For example, in Eclipse it's trivial to take an inner class and move it to its own file. In IntelliJ that doesn't seem to be an option. And that's a breaking change if I do it manually, which is where the Problems panel is so useful. Not forgetting TDD where in Eclipse I can write multiple tests for a feature before any code exists and run them before the unit I'm testing even fully compiles! For example, in this screenshot one of the methods the test class invokes doesn't exist: https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_run_broken_code.png https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_run_broken_code.png

davet91 6y ago

> It's a pain to use when working with multiple (source independent) projects simultaneously. E.g. a library project and the main project. Eclipse lets you open anything you want to in the same window and presents them in the same explorer view. That's a common confusion about IntelliJ. Eclipse Workspace -> IntelliJ Project Eclipse Project -> IntelliJ Module In IntelliJ create an empty Project and import all your Maven or Gradle projects as Modules. Everything in one window :)

dcminter 6y ago
I will try this and report back :) thanks for the clarification! Edit: Ok, report. It's... close enough. I don't really like the need to create a new project to contain the "IntelliJ droppings" :) but honestly that's not that different from Eclipse's workspace directories. Thanks for the tip!

thu2111 6y ago

There's a problems view! It's a bit hidden though. Go Help -> Find Action, type "Problems" and hit enter. You can also get to it by clicking the little red or yellow square in the top right of the editor.

dcminter 6y ago
Thanks, but it's not really the same thing (unless there's another feature somewhere). Take a look at this comparison: https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_vs_idea_problems.png https://paperstack.com/img/ides/eclipse_vs_idea_problems.png In IntelliJ I can invoke this gizmo for the file I'm in, but it reports the problems for that file. It doesn't tell me where else the problems are. If I do a build I typically get a handful of compilation errors until the build gives up. In Eclipse, by default, I get the Problems view. It lists all the compilation issues it knows about in the entire project(s). Because Eclipse does incremental compilation I get to know about issues in a totally different file immediately. I also see stuff like config file errors in the same panel. It's really neat. IntelliJ may have this feature somewhere, but this doesn't seem to be it.