Best of breed vs. general purpose tools

Usually I favor focused 'best of breed' software tools (e.g., IntelliJ for Java and web application development).

Lately though, I find myself using Eclipse a lot more because I can do so much in one environment (Java, Ruby, Python, and C++ development).

Eventually, for me, moving to a general purpose platform will reach a tipping point when more tools are written for the Eclipse platform. My wish list for Eclipse tools is:
  • free UML tool with round trip for Java, Python, and Ruby
  • Semantic web tools like Protege
  • interface to an RDF repository like Sesame
  • general purpose client that works with all relational databases that I need to use in my development
Some of these tools already exist in some form. I don't think that Eclipse will ever be as good as IntelliJ for pure Java develpment, but at some point it might be good enough.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

My Dad's work with Robert Oppenheimer and Edward Teller

Time and Attention Fragmentation in Our Digital Lives

I am moving back to the Google platform, less excited by what Apple is offering