Make up your F’ing mind Andy! Thanks to Ryan’s comments on my previous post, I’ve decided to revisit using Emacs as my editor. This time I’ll make the time to learn Elisp to really appreciate this editor.
There seems to be smart tab-completion everywhere (file finding, command finding, …), which is nice. And, Ryan’s blog “M-x all-things-emacs” is an excellent source for tips and links on Emacs. I particularly enjoyed his post “Giving ido-mode a Second Chance”. The referenced screencast really drove home the importance of having an editor with a great lower level of composable tools.
andy Development Elisp, Emacs
Been using NetBeans the last few weeks, and like it. I’ve been IDE-phobic, mainly due to control issues, but NetBeans has eased my concerns with its standoffish options for non-NetBeans oriented builds and other tasks. I was able to build our app and not have that “Is my build the same as others?” question in my head. Plus, the IDE comes with many features (web stuff, versioning tools, etc.) already built-in.
I’ve been a Vim user for many years, but never felt comfortable using the various Java IDE plugins that are available. I tried Emacs a few times and had similar issues. For normal text editing, I’ll stick to Vim.
I’ll give Eclipse a try again too, I guess. For non-Java development (would be nice), I’ll consider other tools, while sticking to Vim if applicable.
andy Development Eclipse, IDE, Java, NetBeans, Vim
