soooo hate to be branded.. X-(
nope.. 'm not a .net expert.. spendin an year around a technology does not conjure an expert.. not if I choose not to.. coz I've always believed in concepts over concrete details.. I'd gladly be branded ignorant over gettin nailed over expertise.. so, please don't stamp .net on me just coz I wasn't given a chance elsewhere..

never felt so sick of XML as when workin with Biztalk.. n that probably is the least of the annoyances!!

or probably 'tis just my current project..

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

ironic..
just thinking about my next project.. and hey, howcome I dint notice it earlier?!

funny, but the fact's that I'm gonna go in as a consultant to a company that rejected me in my campus interview! and they pay my company a lot more than what they'd have otherwise paid me! :))
what's even more ironic is that my job over there's supposed to be helping out their people with XP and Coding practices, and probably refactor out their code to make it look pretty n more manageable ;)

r u wondering what's so ironic about it? well, the only reason they had for not taking me was my aggregate, coz I cant remember an interview that I dint do well.. and in fact they bagged a good number of our toppers..

hmm.. so, r u thinkin the same that I'm? LOL!!! :))
so, now they're okay with having a low aggregate to help their toppers?! oh well, probably they forgot to ask my company for my aggregate ;)

ha ha.. really can't stop laughing when I think of that.. :))

sometimes, life can be soooooooo mean, soooooooooo ironic.. ;)

UPDATE:
well, maybe someone heard me ;).. the plan's changed (for good) ;)