am I too fanatical?!
k.. you were supposed to say no ;)
well, the context revolves around Eclipse n IntelliJ.. and when it comes to choosing between the two, well, honestly I don't really see a choice over there :D it's just IntelliJ, IntelliJ, IntelliJ and that's about it :P

happened to stumble across this entry which tries to tell you the 10 reasons why Eclipse is better. alright dude, I'll give you all that.. but honestly, you've never used IntelliJ for pro development.. I'll avoid counter-commenting over each of your points (though it's way too tempting not to :D )..

but here's why I prefer IntelliJ over ANY other IDE on the planet (across all the languages).. all the other IDEs help me write code, but IntelliJ helps me solve problems.. IntelliJ knows what I'm thinking.. and that really makes a big difference.. with IntelliJ, my focus almost completely is taken off the nitty-gritties of code which I definitely don't have to be bothered about..

coming to Eclipse, oh I definitely don't hate it.. and honestly, I respect it over many other IDEs (xcept IntellliJ of course ;) ).. but given that, it's nothing more than an IDE.. sure it's free.. and has a very xtensible plugin architecture and everything.. but it loses because of that very point.. it's so generic that it complicates building anything specific around it..

the fundamental differentiator from my point of view is usability.. I think Eclipse has serious usability issues and it's usability sucks big time! alright, it uses SWT, but that only makes it kinda blend with other applications.. from nowhere do I see Eclipse looking pretty because of SWT! alright, I kno I might be a lil biased on that bit.. n that's xactly why it's my point of view (which's fairly twisted btw :D )..

and ah! the open architecture! can't wrap up without mentioning that.. ever tried writing an Eclipse plugin? I did.. long back.. and I gave up.. sure, there's a LOT of documentation around for Eclipse.. and very little for IntelliJ OpenAPI.. but still, I found myself writing an IntelliJ plugin without much (read: any) hassle (ignore the fact that there was a T-shirt for incentive ;) ).. oh, the Eclipse API isn't really bad, but 've said it earlier, it tries to be too generic.. too many details to pay attention to for a small task.. and too much documentation to read thru..

with IntelliJ, you won't find much documentation.. and that does become a major pain in the ass at times.. despite that, OpenAPI is pefectly usable, coz most of the things in there make perfect sense.. definitely OpenAPI isn't the best around.. I've got a 100 improvements to suggest and others'd have a lot more.. but with Eclipse, I just haven't got the time and energy it takes to explore and use it's API to do anything practical..

k.. all these mainly have to do with the power that IntelliJ gives me.. it's code browsing features are simply the best I've seen for Java.. my favourites: Ctrl+N and Ctrl+Alt+Shift+N, Ctrl+H, Ctrl+Alt+H.. with IntelliJ, I'm up for tampering around the most unfamiliar codebases in an instant :)

oh and since it's my blog, I thought I shud mention my IntelliJ plugin.. 'tis called Jump To Usage (alright, 'tis a silly name).. quite a trivial plugin.. but nicely fits into my style of coding :D

computing..
Heroine: Computer, show me the files with details about <blah blah blah>..
Computer: Beginning search thru One million <whatever-silly-number-after-that> files now..
Heroine: (smiles) Cancel search..

some flick I can't remember.. it's inna spacecraft and the miss is tryin to get some confidential info from the craft supercomputer.. the supercomputer of course understands natural language ;) (n divulges any kinda details to anybody who asks for it without any kinda authorization :P )
watched it when I was in college, n the thing that impressed me was the file count thrown by the computer.. it sure was impressive then..

today I'm backin up my data, n find that my recent Workspace alone has over 98000 files! n it's just supposed to be holdin my mini projects/stuff related to them!

yeah, sure my laptop's a lot better than what their conceived supercomputer then was.. but damn! what pisses me off is that it still can't understand natural language! ;) well, my point isn't to compare my laptop wit a supercomputer.. neither to complain about it's understanding capabilities :D

it's just that I always wonder why doesn't computing quality increase wit increase in computing power.. I've seen CPUs with 3 digit LEDs on them to indicate speed in MHz with a generally shorted MSD to show a decently high number! :)
it was just around my XI std. that people thought a 400 MHz Pentium III was impressive.. and a color monitor was a luxury :P

around my III sem, Sidda's Celeron of about 1GHz was better than most.. and when I bought my P4 HT with 2+GHz @ around my 5th sem, none of the systems I knew came closer! :) well, that was the closest one could go to having two processors on a desktop..
around my XI std. a dual processor machine would've been a dedicated server to be touched by the privileged few! but today I run a laptop with dual core, which's as good as two physical processors! and Intel's Quadro's about to be out!

well, it's been about 8 years, and after so many leaps in raw computing power, the softwares that I use everyday don't even come close to what I've come to expect from those of this generation.. the way I manage my data isn't drastically different, n I still feel the pain of searching thru it.. I'm still using the same kind of UI, same kind of software but only with minor visual improvements, and I've to bear with the reasoning that all my computing power goes into getting those minor visual improvements!

I definitely don't agree with Vista's ridiculous system requirements after having seen what it gives me.. oh I love Vista and it's quite jazzy UI.. but I just hate what it shamelessly demands of me for those minor touches..

I've heard stories of people who finished an entire machine simulator without a single error, that too in octal! hmm.. well, can't remember a story more impressive than that.. what happened to computer engineering?!

there're not many softwares that come close to doing what's expected of them.. two that I like the most: IntelliJ coz it knows what and how to do what I want to do.. it thinks the way I think :)
Mathematica for it's.. well, I dunno why I like it.. but I think it's a pure display of arrogance ;) [just my personal opinion] and probably that's why I like it.. or probably it's the kind of backing that Mathematica enjoys..

there're a few more that I like but can't remember, and probably a few more that're good but 've never used.. but the sad thing's that they're so very numbered.. :(