I'm a very heavy gdb CLI user, have my own collection of batch-debug scripts (bisect stuff, fuzzing triage stuff, 'trace every change to variable x' stuff...),

I'm a very heavy gdb CLI user, have my own collection of batch-debug scripts (bisect stuff, fuzzing triage stuff, 'trace every change to variable x' stuff...), and... I wouldn't inflict that on a beginner. Eclipse debugging experience is OK, quite simple to start and do interesting stuff, and you can even patch/continue which as a novice will help a lot. The trick is to 'teach' debugging with the least friction possible. Evaluating the code in your head and comparing with what you observe is the underlying concept, the rest is tools, and they need to get out of the way. As for the OP, I learned java with notepad+CLI and it was terrible. So demotivating. When I discovered Eclipse, I became so happy with java and programming, 'create class', move stuff around, nice autocompletion, find class, refractor, automatic online build, correction suggestions. And I'm a 'using the mouse breaks my flow' old fart. Yes eclipse is buggy, heavy, but damn does it make a difference. It's the standard I compare any IDE to.