Adobe recently put out a small poll to find out how interested the ColdFusion development community would be in an officially supported IDE. Someone posted it to the CF-Talk list and it generated the predictable, well-worn debate that happens every time someone mentions the acronym. In my experiences over the years, I have come to the following opinion.
People don’t switch development tools for two reasons.
- It’s time consuming
- It requires you to wipe your habitual slate clean
The majority of people that I have worked with over the years don’t switch because their current tool, “gets the job done”. They have structured their workflow in such a way to, in their minds, maximize their usage of the tool. If they can do their job right now with no impediments, and get everything done on time, then what’s the point in trying something new?
Perfectly valid point. If you have no interest in learning a new tool for development, why the heck should you?
Unfortunately, there is the small, but vociferous group of developers that DO try out something new, find one or two roadblocks and then rant and rave about how bad the tool is. For example, I worked with a fellow that was still using CF Studio in 2006. It worked for him. He saw my Eclipse installation and thought it looked cool because of all the plugins I was using. He decided to give it a try, so he installed Eclipse and started downloading the list of plugins that I had provided to him.
After only 24 (3 days) hours of experience with Eclipse, he declared that it was the worst tool he had ever used. He was frustrated with the unfamiliar UI, the endless options that could be configured, the new key mappings that he was forced to learn, and lack of features. I spent a day trying to show him how easily these perceived hurdles could be overcome, but he had already made up his mind.
Many of his complaints are mirrored in some of the comments I hear people say about any tool that they “hate”.
I’m one of a, apparently, small group of people who actually take the time to work with a tool for weeks, or even months before I make up my mind about it. I’ve tried a plethora of tools over the years - starting with CF Studio, I’ve tried HomeSite, Dreamweaver, Eclipse, Code Chameleon, and a few others that I’ve forgotten about. I’d pore over every feature of these tools, trying to squeeze every ounce of productivity that I could out of them. I’d install plugins, extensions, helper tools, wizards, you name it. I’d never say die in the hopes that I have finally found a tool that fits how I want to work.
At this point in time, Eclipse is that tool. I’m able to get to it work the way I want, instead of the other way around much more so than anything I’ve used in the past. Admittedly, I do a lot more than ColdFusion development, so my opinion probably isn’t worth as much as someone who does only that.
I have the following features installed.
- Java Development (default installation)
- JSEclipse
- CFEclipse
- QuickREx
- SQL Explorer
- Subclipse
- Mylyn
- Aptana HTML Editor
- SWeDE
- XML Buddy
I use all of the plugins every day and having them all contained within one IDE is perfect for how I work. There are people within my company right now that would absolutely hate Eclipse. It doesn’t fit their work style or their (simplistic?) needs.
The point I’m clumsily trying to make is that before you degrade into saying what you don’t like about Tool X, try stating humbly what you do like about Tool Y and why it’s a great idea for a new IDE. Brush that chip off of your shoulder and remember that there is always someone smarter/wittier/more productive/more inventive/more creative than you.
