Whilst Processing has been / is proving a very powerful tool for learning java and coding, I have found references to other Dev environments such as Eclipse and IntelliJ.
I have had a play around with both of these and IMHO I think IntelliJ is better.
My question is, before I dive headlong into being and IntelliJ nerd, have I made the right decision?
Is anyone out there thinking Eclipse is better and I’ve missed something OR is there another dev environment that might be better than both of these?
The powerful part of Processing is not the IDE it provides, but rather the way it wraps both core Java functionality and significant third party libraries to present a single “API” of sorts for the programmer who doesn’t have the knowledge or skills and experience to deal with the underlying complexity directly.
The IDE itself a solid enough bit of software and it does a decent job, but there are definitely better tools.
Personally I like Eclipse a lot, although
it was my first experience with a good IDE, but that doesn’t make it or any other choice the right one for you. I’ve also used PyCharm (which is also made by the same company as IntelliJ IDEA). While it seemed like a perfectly serviceable IDE, using it felt like a hindrance to me.
I think Eclipse works fine for working with Java (and Processing, which is kind of a subset), but no better probably than any other IDE in the latter respect. If you’d prefer IDEA then go with that.
Which IDE you use isn’t that important, beyond personal preference, unless you specifically need a feature that some of them don’t have.
Currently I use Eclipse because it has the most Processing-related documentation – in particular for library and mode creation, including the Processing Library Template, which is for Eclipse.
If IntelliJ or Netbeans users wanted to create similar setup instructions and templates for those IDEs then I would consider developing Processing Libraries or teaching with them, but as it is, no. I can create something in IDEA just fine, but then when a Processing learner who is just starting to step outside PDE wants to edit it / fork it / create their own et cetera in that new IDE, they need Processing-specific setup and configuration instructions and/or a template. As far as I know (?) those aren’t readably available right now for anything other than Eclipse.
That’s interesting. I was playing around with Eclipse initially but always found it a bit confusing. I was watching a coding train video where IntelliJ was mentioned. I simply did a search on youTube to find a vid on how to make it work with processing. It was very easy to get going. Once started I found it much simpler to use than Eclipse. Of course that’s just my view not a fact .
Also worth noting than as a newbie to this whole coding lark there are probably a ton of more advance things I haven’t run into yet that might be easier in Eclipse.
Thanks for sharing though
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