Why consider a change?
I have been using Eclipse for many years, and still really only used a small part of its capability. I had always been reasonably happy with it, despite the occasional issues, I fully appreciated the fact that I was using free software (although I did make a couple of small donations).
But a couple of years ago I started getting problems with its interactions with Ubuntu. Now to be fair to Eclipse, some of the underlying issues were almost certainly outside Eclipse itself .. but I had been losing time from menus disappearing and SWT related random crashes for a long time.
At a suitable break point in developing V7, I decided to upgrade to Eclipse Luna. Initially I thought all was well, but when some (but not all) menus stopped working I admit I just lost patience.
So I tried Intellij IDEA.
Making the Change
I knew of course that changing from something very familiar would be a bit of a challenge, so naturally I started with the Community Edition of IDEA.
Trying to do some very simple things took time, because I had to find out how to do them. Now the IDEA documentation is pretty good, but sometimes you just have to know the right words to find what you are looking for.
It wasn't helped because I only code in my spare time - my current day job doesn't require it - so I was forgetting new things between sessions. But I resolved to be patient and give myself a chance to find my way around ...
For reasons I can't explain, I find I use keyboard shortcuts more than I did on Eclipse. Ironically, if I had used shortcuts more on Eclipse the changeover may have been easier as you can select an Eclipse key mapping for IDEA.
Anyway, after a bit of early frustration just getting used to the differences, I came to like IDEA, and I've been using it for about 3 months now. The biggest single reason is still that it doesn't crash, or have quirky menu issues.
My favourite feature is the Live Templates - much more powerful than the Eclipse equivalent and can be a real time saver by generating code for your common coding patterns.
I like the Gradle integration too .. with Eclipse I always used the command line for Gradle, it was just easier. No great problem, but Gradle actually just feels like part of IDEA.
Of course there isn't the huge array of plugins that Eclipse has available, but even so, there are quite a few; it seems that most, if not all, of the common requirements would be covered.
Paying the Price
Now the Community Edition is only for pure Java, and for a while that was enough. But it doesn't take long before you stray into needing the licenced (called 'Ultimate') version. In my case, I wanted to run a web app on Tomcat, which isn't supported via the Community Edition.
So then I was faced with buying a licence, or returning to Eclipse ... and the licence would cost more than I had contributed to Eclipse.
I decided to go ahead, still mainly because of stability, but also because I keep finding features, often quite small in themselves, which just make coding a bit easier ... and I am fortunate enough to be able to afford a personal licence.
I must admit though, that I still feel a bit guilty about leaving Eclipse ... I've always been a keen supporter of the open source movement.
