With a little bit of time off, I decided to dabble into Android App development. With Eclipse on my old laptop, that meant setting up an entirely clean environment on my new laptop. I had originally intended to write my thoughts on Android in comparison to my recent experiences with iPhone App development.
Instead, I had to dwell on the Eclipse IDE vs. Visual Studio. And the fact that from the early days of Eclipse IDE, it made sure to have a great plugin/integration story. One of the subtle and nice things being that you could simply enter an URL to install some new component.
That trend also spills into the online community and support. Albeit, Microsoft has attempted to change that with Visual Studio Gallery. Having said that, it is still no Eclipse Marketplace.
No doubt a lot of thought went into VS and the decision not to provide a point-anywhere-to-add approach with security being at the top of that list. But, It’s these subtle niceties that make you realize the value of simplicity.