So I downloaded the sdk manager and it says it has downloaded the sdk and downloaded the device type I want to try and make apps and faces for but I can't go any further.... The image attached is as far as I am able to go... Please explain what I am doing wrong and if possible a Direct download would be help full for windows... And yes I HAVE JAVA INSTALLED!!!!
thank you
Crags
TL;DR on an individual basis, some people may prefer Eclipse over VS Code. But as far as I can tell, the big picture is that VS Code is much more popular than Eclipse. (Otherwise why would Garmin switch focus?)
I can also see why some people would dislike/hate VS Code (I have my own issues with it), but my personal opinion is that VS Code is still better than Eclipse, and if I had to choose between the two, I would pick VS Code. If you ever want to do any other kind of dev work (even just for fun), VS Code is much more of a "industry standard" now compared to Eclipse.
Source: I am a full-time dev who once used Eclipse every day, and now uses VS Code every day. I wouldn't switch back if you paid me to. For further context, I used to tell my coworkers how great Eclipse was (when we used to standardize on something that was worse.) Things change and tools evolve, but Eclipse hasn't evolved (IMO).
You could try both and see which one you like better. Keep in mind that, supposedly, Connect IQ support for Eclipse will eventually by phased out, so VS Code will be the supported CIQ environment in the future.
Then again, the VS Code Monkey C plugin still has several bugs and limitations compared to the Eclipse CIQ plugin, so there is that.
Eclipse is complete, as been around for years, and simpler in many ways for CIQ. Also, it's what in the documentation. I'd never used Eclipse when I started and was able it pick it up fairly quickly. VS Code is still considered alpha/beta.
I disagree that VS Code is considered alpha/beta. I'd like to see a citation for that, as while Microsoft does have Alpha builds for VS Code, it also releases stable versions regularly, and the stable version is what you get when you go to the website.
It's also been around for 6 years, and the current version is 1.58.2. (Typically "pre-release" software has 0 as the first version component.)
Yes Eclipse has been around for 19 years, but the flipside of that is it rarely changes or improves (as you said, it's "complete"). I haven't noticed any differences in the last 5 years or so. On the other hand, VS Code is constantly adding new features.
Facts/observations:
- VS Code was the most popular dev environment according to a stackoverflow survey in 2019 (chosen by 50% of respondents). Eclipse came in 7th place (with a 14.4% share): [https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#development-environments-and-tools]
- To put this in perspective, Eclipse lost out to Vim (25.4%), a 30-year old clone of a 45 year old editor whose interface hasn't changed significantly since the beginning.
- In a 2019 CIQ dev summit video, Garmin themselves stated that they switched from Eclipse to VS Code because Eclipse is too complex (which resulting a high barrier to entry, for new devs).
Unfortunately I don't have a link to this video (which is apparently unlisted on youtube), but you have to ask yourself why Garmin would switch focus from Eclipse to VS Code, unless they perceived some sort of benefit either for themselves or for developers (which also benefits them by attracting more devs).
- One advantage to popularity (regardless of whether that popularity is "valid" or not), is widespread 3rd-party support. For instance, there are several useful VS Code plugins which just aren't available for eclipse.
For example, this plugin has 3 million downloads: [https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=CoenraadS.bracket-pair-colorizer-2]
I was able to find equivalent plugins to the above for other popular editors like Sublime and Intellij, but not for Eclipse.
- Several people on these forums, including Garmin employees, have expressed that they like VS Code. Others have outright stated that they hate Eclipse (but that's just their opinion, of course.)
One example:
My personal opinion/experiences:
- The usability of Eclipse is terrible. Even when Eclipse and VS Code do similar things, I've personally found that VS Code does them better. (Such as filtering open editors by name or searching for commands by name.)
Furthermore, VS Code can do a lot of things that Eclipse can't (like edit with multiple cursors, outside of the context of rectangular selection.)
- VS Code isn't perfect, but I'm a full-time dev, and I don't know anyone at a modern company who prefers Eclipse over other modern IDEs such as VS Code or IntelliJ (which, like Eclipse, is primarly focused on Java development). I mention IntelliJ because it's also roughly 20 years old, but unlike Eclipse, it's still evolving and improving, and therefore people still like to use it (IMO). (IntelliJ came 4th with a 25% share in the stackoverflow survey). For example, IntelliJ also supports multiple cursors (outside of rectangular selection.)
I will say that the Monkey C plugin for VS Code is def not complete, and it could use a lot of usability tweaks. But that doesn't really reflect on VS Code itself.
