Art Taylor
30 Replies
Last post:
Sep 30, 2002 12:58 PM by
Cliff Rowley
Glen Stampoutlzis
We're all friendly here, except maybe that Eugene Belyaev guy... 
A few things Idea might have over Eclipse. I'm not sure about all the
features of eclipse so I could be off track:
1. Great for keyboard lovers.
2. Really nice XML support (especially in the beta's).
3. Refactoring in JSP's (does eclipse do this??)
4. Create from usage.
5. Javadoc error hilighting.
6. Javadoc completion
7. Generally more refactorings.
8. Multiple types of completions.
9. Code inspections.
10. Sharable project files.
11. Really convenient generator for getters/setters and constructors.
12. Fast find file or class.
13. Fine grained colour highlighting
14. Quick javadoc that actually doesn't look crappy.
15. Getter/setter aware property renames.
See, no flames.
--
Glen Stampoultzis (TriNexus Pty Ltd)
Fixed:61 3 9753-6850 Mob:61 (0)402 835 458
ICQ: 62722370 EMail: glens@apache.org
"Art Taylor" <idea@astrogoth.com> wrote in message
news:ac9sfq$v3p$1@is.intellij.net...
This is an absurd question that will inevitably start a flame war, but I
am
very lazy and have a great fear of IDE commitment.
>
I was previously a convinced and happy user of VisualAge/Java, and ended
up
transitioning off in the past few months due to being with a new employer,
where everyone else used vi and cvs on Solaris, an environment in which
VisualAge does not necessarily coexist seamlessly.
>
I stumbled along using emacs again, along with my twelve-year-old mishmash
of elisp/jde/ange/etc., which required way too much thinking and
remembering
on my part.
>
Then I found IDEA, and have been really happy with the way it looks.
>
But now I've been looking at Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org), which
appears
to be VisualAge without some of the things I hated about VA. It's
file-based, it integrates with CVS, and it has pretty dockable frames.
Frabjous.
>
A lot of what I like about IntelliJ IDEA is present in Eclipse.
Basically,
I just care about things that save the little five- or ten-second
interruptions while developing. Classbrowsers, method completion, and
in-line error detection are the three big wins for me. I don't do GUIs,
but
I integrate with big libraries of existing code written by other people.
>
The question I'm asking, and I apologise in advance for stirring up this
hornets'-nest, is, why would I be looking at switching to Eclipse instead
of
IDEA? The price is one factor, but frankly, $500 is a small price to pay
over the course of months or years of developing code, especially if I can
get someone else to pay it (with a little begging).
>
Thank you very much!
>
-a.
>
>
Mike Liu
Everything Glen said is true!
We used to be using VisualAge here, from version 3.0 to 4.0. Frankly
speaking, without using Instantiation with VA, VA isn't nearly as productive
anyways. Although in many ways I am still a big fan of VA. When IBM decided
to drop VA, we decided to take the chance and look around for something
else. We've also tried Eclipse, JBuilder, WebGain, even JPadPro! I can
honestly tell you that nothing come close to the usability and productivity
of IDEA! Honest!
There were 3 things that VA does which were not available in IDEA -- 3
features that we care about -- build-in source code control, wizards (some
of them, for Java beginners) and GUI Builder. As I understand the latest
Adriadna supports local CVS, so that's one down. Adriadna has also added
many coding shortcuts/refactoring/templates and such, that the "wizards"
concepts start to look like a thing of the past. Frankly I prefer Adriadna's
approach on code generations -- it's much cleaner and gradual, giving
developers better control and assurance.
As for GUI, we assigned one of our developers to do it in VA. Poor dude!
Just so you know, we also integrate with huge 3rd-party and in-house
libraries, including local, and occasional remote, debugging on Weblogic.
Our codebase is now approaching 20Meg, with 8 Megs on Java code. We are
using one of the crappiest SCM out there (company standards... boo...) --
MKS. But all thanks to IDEA's easy and powerful external integration, we
were able to integrate very nicely with a few scripts (baring the occasional
file-locking problem.. hint hint...). Now with Open API, I think we can even
integrate better, along with our build and deployment process. Eclipse, for
us, is a little too bulky and not enough of fine controls. Check out their
integration API, it's a lot more complicated than IDEA's. OK, one flame,
that's it!
Thanks,
Mike Liu
"Glen Stampoutlzis" <gstamp@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message
news:acaqkl$dps$1@is.intellij.net...
>
We're all friendly here, except maybe that Eugene Belyaev guy...
>
A few things Idea might have over Eclipse. I'm not sure about all the
features of eclipse so I could be off track:
>
1. Great for keyboard lovers.
2. Really nice XML support (especially in the beta's).
3. Refactoring in JSP's (does eclipse do this??)
4. Create from usage.
5. Javadoc error hilighting.
6. Javadoc completion
7. Generally more refactorings.
8. Multiple types of completions.
9. Code inspections.
10. Sharable project files.
11. Really convenient generator for getters/setters and constructors.
12. Fast find file or class.
13. Fine grained colour highlighting
14. Quick javadoc that actually doesn't look crappy.
15. Getter/setter aware property renames.
>
See, no flames.
>
--
Glen Stampoultzis (TriNexus Pty Ltd)
Fixed:61 3 9753-6850 Mob:61 (0)402 835 458
ICQ: 62722370 EMail: glens@apache.org
>
>
"Art Taylor" <idea@astrogoth.com> wrote in message
news:ac9sfq$v3p$1@is.intellij.net...
This is an absurd question that will inevitably start a flame war, but I
am
very lazy and have a great fear of IDE commitment.
>
I was previously a convinced and happy user of VisualAge/Java, and ended
up
transitioning off in the past few months due to being with a new
employer,
where everyone else used vi and cvs on Solaris, an environment in which
VisualAge does not necessarily coexist seamlessly.
>
I stumbled along using emacs again, along with my twelve-year-old
mishmash
of elisp/jde/ange/etc., which required way too much thinking and
remembering
on my part.
>
Then I found IDEA, and have been really happy with the way it looks.
>
But now I've been looking at Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org), which
appears
to be VisualAge without some of the things I hated about VA. It's
file-based, it integrates with CVS, and it has pretty dockable frames.
Frabjous.
>
A lot of what I like about IntelliJ IDEA is present in Eclipse.
Basically,
I just care about things that save the little five- or ten-second
interruptions while developing. Classbrowsers, method completion, and
in-line error detection are the three big wins for me. I don't do GUIs,
but
I integrate with big libraries of existing code written by other people.
>
The question I'm asking, and I apologise in advance for stirring up this
hornets'-nest, is, why would I be looking at switching to Eclipse
instead
of
IDEA? The price is one factor, but frankly, $500 is a small price to
pay
over the course of months or years of developing code, especially if I
can
get someone else to pay it (with a little begging).
>
Thank you very much!
>
-a.
>
>
>
>
Jacques Morel
I think Glen has said almost everything. I will add
0) Great navigation (goto definition, goto implementation, go forward/back)
To me it comes down to
1) Great navigation: makes you spend less time to understand your code
2) Great refactoring (even in jsp): makes you keep your code cleaner since
it is so easy
3) Great intellij(c)ent code completion (program by intention/forward
completion, smart completion, live templates,...). Even though program by
intention will be in eclipse in a short while, ariadna is the ONLY IDE on
the market that does support it. If you are doing Test First Design it is
addictive.
4) Great intelligent editors (XML, jsp, java)
On eclipse side:
eclipse not being Websphere Studio Developer does not contain any J2EE
plugin (so far even though they are bound to come up). IBM will be the first
one to convert their WSD to eclipse 2.0 and provide a killer IDE for
development on ... WebSphere only (change a EJB or servlet in debugger and
continue debugging w/o reloading app, Aaah the beauty of J9 VM!). I guess
that leaves us unlucky ones to use IntelliJ 
A lot of companies are behind eclipse. I heard that Borland is thinking of
rewriting JBuilder on top of eclipse. Eric Gamma is on the development team
at OTI. However it is a political beast (12 big companies, 150 tool vendors,
1000+ open source developers + OTI's full time). It is bound to slow down
development compare to a small nibble talented <15 developer company. In
addition they seem to have kept the IBM kind of mentality that they can do
it better: new compiler, new UI component suite,... They are not taking the
fastest route for sure!
I will have to say that eclipse is better in
1) memory foot print: we have projects with 4K classes. running the eap and
compiling with it is a 190MB (IDE) + 150MB (javac 1.4). Eclipse with their
incremental compiler runs at 100-150MB less.
2) compiler speed: even though 1.4 compiler is much faster than jikes it is
still 15-20% slower than eclipse compiler. Sometimes the eap dependency
check freezes for a while even though only 1 file w/o dependent has changed
(I could not produce a good test case for the IntelliJ team.)
3) the use of the native swing-like component (SWT) makes the UI a lot more
responsive
4) a more scalable architecture due to SWT, incremental compiler, plugin
architecture.
5) a lot of plugins developed or in the process of being developed: AspectJ,
Rational XDE, Rational Clearcase, IBM WSD,...
In addition (I am missing data to back this up) I am afraid that the bulk of
eclipse team was implementing the core architecture. Once they arrive at a
stable core, they might be able to turn their attention on the peripheral
features: navigation, refactoring, completion, searches that makes ariadna
so pleasurable.
It is kind of a David vs.Goliath battle. Time will only tell.
Anyhow JetBrains has in its favor its exceptional user community
To conclude with real data, we have a development base split between
intellij and eclipse. Even though eclipse was pushed as the standard`java
IDE, intellij won just by grass root adoption and we are in the process of
buying close to 200 licenses of IntelliJ. This will effectively make our 250
java developer shop standardize on Intellij.
Jacques
"Glen Stampoutlzis" <gstamp@iprimus.com.au> wrote in message
news:acaqkl$dps$1@is.intellij.net...
>
We're all friendly here, except maybe that Eugene Belyaev guy...
>
A few things Idea might have over Eclipse. I'm not sure about all the
features of eclipse so I could be off track:
>
1. Great for keyboard lovers.
2. Really nice XML support (especially in the beta's).
3. Refactoring in JSP's (does eclipse do this??)
4. Create from usage.
5. Javadoc error hilighting.
6. Javadoc completion
7. Generally more refactorings.
8. Multiple types of completions.
9. Code inspections.
10. Sharable project files.
11. Really convenient generator for getters/setters and constructors.
12. Fast find file or class.
13. Fine grained colour highlighting
14. Quick javadoc that actually doesn't look crappy.
15. Getter/setter aware property renames.
>
See, no flames.
>
--
Glen Stampoultzis (TriNexus Pty Ltd)
Fixed:61 3 9753-6850 Mob:61 (0)402 835 458
ICQ: 62722370 EMail: glens@apache.org
>
>
"Art Taylor" <idea@astrogoth.com> wrote in message
news:ac9sfq$v3p$1@is.intellij.net...
This is an absurd question that will inevitably start a flame war, but I
am
very lazy and have a great fear of IDE commitment.
>
I was previously a convinced and happy user of VisualAge/Java, and ended
up
transitioning off in the past few months due to being with a new
employer,
where everyone else used vi and cvs on Solaris, an environment in which
VisualAge does not necessarily coexist seamlessly.
>
I stumbled along using emacs again, along with my twelve-year-old
mishmash
of elisp/jde/ange/etc., which required way too much thinking and
remembering
on my part.
>
Then I found IDEA, and have been really happy with the way it looks.
>
But now I've been looking at Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org), which
appears
to be VisualAge without some of the things I hated about VA. It's
file-based, it integrates with CVS, and it has pretty dockable frames.
Frabjous.
>
A lot of what I like about IntelliJ IDEA is present in Eclipse.
Basically,
I just care about things that save the little five- or ten-second
interruptions while developing. Classbrowsers, method completion, and
in-line error detection are the three big wins for me. I don't do GUIs,
but
I integrate with big libraries of existing code written by other people.
>
The question I'm asking, and I apologise in advance for stirring up this
hornets'-nest, is, why would I be looking at switching to Eclipse
instead
of
IDEA? The price is one factor, but frankly, $500 is a small price to
pay
over the course of months or years of developing code, especially if I
can
get someone else to pay it (with a little begging).
>
Thank you very much!
>
-a.
>
>
>
>
Glen Stampoutlzis
It is kind of a David vs.Goliath battle. Time will only tell.
Anyhow JetBrains has in its favor its exceptional user community
Development speed has been rather impressive given the small size of the
team at IntelliJ. Proof that a lot can be done with a small group of
talented people.
Anyone have any data on how long the eclipse project as actually been under
development for? Idea as been going for <2 years I think.
To conclude with real data, we have a development base split between
intellij and eclipse. Even though eclipse was pushed as the standard`java
IDE, intellij won just by grass root adoption and we are in the process of
buying close to 200 licenses of IntelliJ. This will effectively make our
250
java developer shop standardize on Intellij.
It's hard for a vendor that doesn't do much advertising to actually attract
any mindshare so it's to IntelliJ's credit that it as gained the kind of
acceptance that it has.
-- Glen
Boyd Ebsworthy
I can only see one big thing missing in IDEA, it's a visual gui designer.
I know not everyone needs to design gui, but when you have to go
GridBagLayout and actually do the logic yourself, well... it hurts
It's the only reason i keep a JBuilder around..
R. Le Brettevillois wrote:
What are the drawbacks with IDEA?
Why should he change for another IDE?
"Richard Nemec" <rndzank@attbi.com> a ?crit dans le message de news:
Hani Suleiman
Or do it by hand like real developers do.
On 5/22/02 11:30 AM, in article 3CEBB996.4070003@entreview.com, "Boyd
Ebsworthy" <bebsworthy@entreview.com> wrote:
I can only see one big thing missing in IDEA, it's a visual gui designer.
I know not everyone needs to design gui, but when you have to go
GridBagLayout and actually do the logic yourself, well... it hurts
It's the only reason i keep a JBuilder around..
R. Le Brettevillois wrote:
>> What are the drawbacks with IDEA?
>> Why should he change for another IDE?
>>
>> "Richard Nemec" <rndzank@attbi.com> a ?crit dans le message de news:
>> acdahs$oi1$1@is.intellij.net...
Scott Sirovy
GridBagLayout is a pain but I've developed some helper/utility routines that
I take from place to place that eases the effort -- that is a must or it
does hurt.
There is now another choice for such visual flexibility without the volumes
of code required to set it up. Check out TableLayout here:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/index.html
-sms
"Boyd Ebsworthy" <bebsworthy@entreview.com> wrote in message
news:3CEBB996.4070003@entreview.com...
I can only see one big thing missing in IDEA, it's a visual gui designer.
>
I know not everyone needs to design gui, but when you have to go
GridBagLayout and actually do the logic yourself, well... it hurts
>
It's the only reason i keep a JBuilder around..
>
>
R. Le Brettevillois wrote:
What are the drawbacks with IDEA?
Why should he change for another IDE?
>
"Richard Nemec" <rndzank@attbi.com> a ?crit dans le message de news:
Boyd Ebsworthy
looks nice, i'll check it out
thanks
Scott Sirovy wrote:
GridBagLayout is a pain but I've developed some helper/utility routines that
I take from place to place that eases the effort -- that is a must or it
does hurt.
There is now another choice for such visual flexibility without the volumes
of code required to set it up. Check out TableLayout here:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/index.html
mark Griffin
I think that tablelayout is a very important development. I don't know why
Sun doesn't make a bigger deal out of it. It should be featured on their
front page.
"Boyd Ebsworthy" <bebsworthy@entreview.com> wrote in message
news:3CEBD1C7.2010604@entreview.com...
looks nice, i'll check it out
thanks
Scott Sirovy wrote:
GridBagLayout is a pain but I've developed some helper/utility routines
that
I take from place to place that eases the effort -- that is a must or it
does hurt.
>
There is now another choice for such visual flexibility without the
volumes
of code required to set it up. Check out TableLayout here:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/index.html
>
Josh Knowles
I totally agree, I dont know why they didn't put it in 1.4, it has saved us
tons of time.
"mark Griffin" <mgriff@clarityconnect.com> wrote in message
news:adj688$kn3$1@is.intellij.net...
>
I think that tablelayout is a very important development. I don't know
why
Sun doesn't make a bigger deal out of it. It should be featured on their
front page.
>
>
>
>
"Boyd Ebsworthy" <bebsworthy@entreview.com> wrote in message
news:3CEBD1C7.2010604@entreview.com...
looks nice, i'll check it out
thanks
Scott Sirovy wrote:
GridBagLayout is a pain but I've developed some helper/utility
routines
that
I take from place to place that eases the effort -- that is a must or
it
does hurt.
>
There is now another choice for such visual flexibility without the
volumes
of code required to set it up. Check out TableLayout here:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/index.html
>
>
>
mark Griffin
This is off topic, but you started it!
GUI-Newbies and Pros alike, here is the answer to your prayers:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/
-Mark
"Thomas Singer" <idea@regnis.de> wrote in message
news:3d0734d8.19071232@news.intellij.net...
Well, I would call me a GUI designer (most time -- we are developing
Swing applications), but I never felt the need for an tools that helps
me writing this code.
>
I think, a visual gui designer like in JBuilder or Netbeans is only
useful for GUI-newbies (to see, what is possible) and for prototypes.
In real applications you better write your own helper methods, that
handle the GridBagConstraints for you. If you want to see an
application developed with this kind of approach, take a look
SmartCVS. For instance, each dialog has the same gaps between
components. If you would like to change these gaps with a visual gui
designer, you would need a couple of days to modify ALL dialogs...
>
Tom
>
>
On Wed, 22 May 2002 17:30:30 +0200, Boyd Ebsworthy
<bebsworthy@entreview.com> wrote:
>
I can only see one big thing missing in IDEA, it's a visual gui
designer.
>
I know not everyone needs to design gui, but when you have to go
GridBagLayout and actually do the logic yourself, well... it hurts
>
It's the only reason i keep a JBuilder around..
>
>
R. Le Brettevillois wrote:
What are the drawbacks with IDEA?
Why should he change for another IDE?
>
"Richard Nemec" <rndzank@attbi.com> a ?crit dans le message de news:
>
>
Matthew Humphrey
After reading about TableLayout, I now wonder of the designer of
GridBagLayout was on some sort of mind-altering drugs. Maybe it was the same
guy who designed java.util.Date?
"mark Griffin" <mgriff@clarityconnect.com> wrote in message
news:ae7g35$k8$1@is.intellij.net...
This is off topic, but you started it!
>
GUI-Newbies and Pros alike, here is the answer to your prayers:
>
-Mark
>
"Thomas Singer" <idea@regnis.de> wrote in message
Well, I would call me a GUI designer (most time -- we are developing
Swing applications), but I never felt the need for an tools that helps
me writing this code.
>
I think, a visual gui designer like in JBuilder or Netbeans is only
useful for GUI-newbies (to see, what is possible) and for prototypes.
In real applications you better write your own helper methods, that
handle the GridBagConstraints for you. If you want to see an
application developed with this kind of approach, take a look
SmartCVS. For instance, each dialog has the same gaps between
components. If you would like to change these gaps with a visual gui
designer, you would need a couple of days to modify ALL dialogs...
>
Tom
>
>
On Wed, 22 May 2002 17:30:30 +0200, Boyd Ebsworthy
<bebsworthy@entreview.com> wrote:
>
I can only see one big thing missing in IDEA, it's a visual gui
designer.
>
I know not everyone needs to design gui, but when you have to go
GridBagLayout and actually do the logic yourself, well... it hurts
>
It's the only reason i keep a JBuilder around..
>
>
R. Le Brettevillois wrote:
What are the drawbacks with IDEA?
Why should he change for another IDE?
>
"Richard Nemec" <rndzank@attbi.com> a ?crit dans le message de news:
>
>
>
>
Stefan G. Renz
Matthew Humphrey wrote:
After reading about TableLayout, I now wonder of the designer of
GridBagLayout was on some sort of mind-altering drugs. Maybe it was the
same guy who designed java.util.Date?
))))))))
Thomas Singer
Another interesting layout manager is HIGLayout
(http://www.autel.cz/dmi/tutorial.html).
Tom
On Wed, 12 Jun 2002 08:49:59 -0400, "mark Griffin"
<mgriff@clarityconnect.com> wrote:
This is off topic, but you started it!
GUI-Newbies and Pros alike, here is the answer to your prayers:
http://java.sun.com/products/jfc/tsc/articles/tablelayout/
-Mark
"Thomas Singer" <idea@regnis.de> wrote in message
Well, I would call me a GUI designer (most time -- we are developing
Swing applications), but I never felt the need for an tools that helps
me writing this code.
>
I think, a visual gui designer like in JBuilder or Netbeans is only
useful for GUI-newbies (to see, what is possible) and for prototypes.
In real applications you better write your own helper methods, that
handle the GridBagConstraints for you. If you want to see an
application developed with this kind of approach, take a look
SmartCVS. For instance, each dialog has the same gaps between
components. If you would like to change these gaps with a visual gui
designer, you would need a couple of days to modify ALL dialogs...
>
Tom
>
>
On Wed, 22 May 2002 17:30:30 +0200, Boyd Ebsworthy
<bebsworthy@entreview.com> wrote:
>
I can only see one big thing missing in IDEA, it's a visual gui
designer.
>
I know not everyone needs to design gui, but when you have to go
GridBagLayout and actually do the logic yourself, well... it hurts
>
It's the only reason i keep a JBuilder around..
>
>
R. Le Brettevillois wrote:
What are the drawbacks with IDEA?
Why should he change for another IDE?
>
"Richard Nemec" <rndzank@attbi.com> a ?crit dans le message de news:
>
>
Alexey Efimov
IntelliJ IDEA FOREVER!!!! ))
"Art Taylor" <idea@astrogoth.com> wrote in message
news:ac9sfq$v3p$1@is.intellij.net...
This is an absurd question that will inevitably start a flame war, but I
am
very lazy and have a great fear of IDE commitment.
>
I was previously a convinced and happy user of VisualAge/Java, and ended
up
transitioning off in the past few months due to being with a new employer,
where everyone else used vi and cvs on Solaris, an environment in which
VisualAge does not necessarily coexist seamlessly.
>
I stumbled along using emacs again, along with my twelve-year-old mishmash
of elisp/jde/ange/etc., which required way too much thinking and
remembering
on my part.
>
Then I found IDEA, and have been really happy with the way it looks.
>
But now I've been looking at Eclipse (http://www.eclipse.org), which
appears
to be VisualAge without some of the things I hated about VA. It's
file-based, it integrates with CVS, and it has pretty dockable frames.
Frabjous.
>
A lot of what I like about IntelliJ IDEA is present in Eclipse.
Basically,
I just care about things that save the little five- or ten-second
interruptions while developing. Classbrowsers, method completion, and
in-line error detection are the three big wins for me. I don't do GUIs,
but
I integrate with big libraries of existing code written by other people.
>
The question I'm asking, and I apologise in advance for stirring up this
hornets'-nest, is, why would I be looking at switching to Eclipse instead
of
IDEA? The price is one factor, but frankly, $500 is a small price to pay
over the course of months or years of developing code, especially if I can
get someone else to pay it (with a little begging).
>
Thank you very much
>
-a.
>
>
Guest
And even if it were slower, the fact that I rarely have to reach for my mouse totally makes up for it.
Ironically, it is IDEAs mostly keyboard driven approach that causes me the most problems. I rarely work with one program at a time, or on one thing.
I constantly find myself going for the spartant tool bar to click some icon that I suddenly remember is not there. In my other applications(IDEs, editors, spreadsheets, etc.), I try to get the toolbars as consistent as I reasonable can. And, if I can customize the menus, especially the right click ones, that is all the better.
I am hoping that those of us who are heavy mouse users(for whatever reasons) will get a few options to make IDEA more convienient for us, because there is no way I am going to change my style now(for so many reasons).
I have once used CodeGuide 1.0 in the deep deep past (That will be some 2 or 3 years ago ).
They had this on the fly makring of syntax errors. That was an innovation in that time. But CodeGuide was more an editor than an IDE. And version 2 didn't change this.
Well, don't know whether 5.0 was improved in that field, but one thing I can say is, that they seem to have a very slow development.
Since I have found IDEA, I haven't seen any IDE that was worth the change.
I don't think that being open source is some kind of
quality or usability certificate. I have seen much
open source crap and many high quality open source
projects. The same goes for closed source software.
Definitely. Open Source is a choice, not a requirement - and contrary to popular belief, it's not 'bad karma' to be closed source.
The only real advantage of open source is that you
can have a look at the code and try to fix the bugs
that annoy you the most.
I'm not sure I agree with that being the only real advantage - there are many advantages for all the stakeholders in an Open Source projec, but yes it's a definite advantage. As soon as you use an Open Source project, you become a stakeholder - and you have the ability to contribute to that which you have a vested interest in. That's the way I see it, nurturing your investement in the adoption of a project. This is more prominent in the use of frameworks and libraries that your own projects depend on, where they essentially become a part of your work. A little less so for an IDE, which is interchangeable - we're not nescessarily tied to a particular IDE (usually).
There are lots of reasons for not going open source, but you have to remember that it's the author(s) perogative.
So I think that being open source does not make
Eclipse any better than IDEA. You'll have to bring in
some heavier artillery for that.
Unfortunately this seems to be the new fashion in attitude. You can get some free with every boxed Linux set
Personally I love IDEA, and I wonder how different it would be were the ideas of the authors 'contaminated' (for want of a better word) by the ideas of the great unwashed