Microsoft Visual Studio Vs Eclipse – Everything you Need to Know!
Are you an android developer? Do you want to join the .NET community of developers by making apps for Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10 UWP & other Microsoft platforms? Then let’s get started with this blog post where I’ll be comparing Eclipse vs Visual Studio.
Eclipse IDE is one of the most popular tools among professional and newbie Android developers. It is free and open-source with a bunch of features that provide an excellent development environment for Android app developers.
On the other hand, Microsoft Visual Studio IDE is a new kid on the block but it’s not too late to catch up even though it was launched only last year. The best thing about this IDE is its close integration with Microsoft services and platforms i.e it allows developers to code for windows platform using the tools and technologies they already know without much hassles.
In this blog post, I’ll compare Eclipse vs Visual Studio from a professional Android developer’s perspective highlighting the features both these IDEs have to offer. I will also highlight what I think is the best feature of each IDE.
User Interface:
Visual Studio’s user interface is much more polished and modern as compared to Eclipse. Everything is well organized and easy to find. The features are also neatly categorized which makes it very easy for a developer to find the right tool they need for their development task. On top of that, Visual Studio offers a lot of customization options which makes it very user-friendly.
Eclipse’s user interface is not as polished as Visual Studio but it is still quite good. One thing I really like about Eclipse is that it provides more information regarding the status of the project and the code. For example, if you hover your mouse over a file or a class, Eclipse will show you the relevant information regarding that file or class. This is really helpful while debugging errors.
Integration with other Tools and Technologies:
Visual Studio offers excellent integration with Microsoft tools and technologies. This makes it very easy for developers to move between different development tasks. For example, Visual Studio is tightly integrated with Microsoft’s cloud service Azure. If you are using this IDE, you will be able to create apps that run on Windows and Azure without any hassles.
Eclipse, on the other hand, offers integration with most of the open-source tools and technologies but is not as good as VS. The best thing about Eclipse is that it is not limited to just Android development. It can be used for a variety of development tasks such as web development, desktop application development, etc.
Project Management Capabilities:
Visual Studio offers an excellent project management system which makes it very easy for developers to keep track of the status of their project. The project management system is very comprehensive and allows developers to manage a variety of tasks such as creating and managing tasks, scheduling tasks, tracking bugs etc.
Eclipse does not have a good project management system as compared to Visual Studio. This can be a bit frustrating for developers who are used to working with Visual Studio.
Code Editing Capabilities:
Visual Studio offers excellent code editing features which makes it very easy to write high quality apps. It has a feature called “IntelliSense” which provides autocomplete suggestions while coding. The autocomplete suggestions are really helpful as it helps you to avoid typos and small mistakes that might cause your app to crash.
Eclipse also offers a good code editing system but Visual Studio’s code editor is a lot better which makes it a little bit frustrating to use Eclipse if you are used to working with Visual Studio.
Code Refactoring Tools:
Visual Studio provides very good refactoring tools which make the process of refactoring code much more efficient. With the help of these refactoring tools, you can easily rename classes and methods, find and replace words inside your code etc.
Eclipse does not offer as good refactoring tools as Visual Studio but it still provides most of the required refactoring features that a developer might need in their day to day work.
Debugging Tools:
Visual Studio provides very good debugging tools which make the process of finding bugs much more efficient. You can attach a debugger to your app that is already running on an Android device by using Visual Studio’s Remote Debugging Tool. All you need to do is enable ADB debugging in your Android device and then connect it to your computer.
