All I want from Eclipse now

The only things which I now want from Eclipse which I dont have are:

- a search toolbar (like Visual Studio has) so that I dont have to open a window in order to search.
- the ability to split the code editor into panes so that I can view two different sections of a file at once (again, like VS has).

I think the search toolbar is in the most recent Eclipse version. Should I try it?? When I go to http://www.eclipse.org/ and click on "Eclipse for Java developers", I see that they have my verison (Helios) but they also have Indigo above it. Maybe this is the new version with new features that I want??

It was actually hard to find a good description of changes. One blogger stated that he had installed Indigo and didn't see much difference. Finally, I was given this link:
http://help.eclipse.org/indigo/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.platform.doc.user%2FwhatsNew%2Fplatform_whatsnew.html

Many items made no sense to me (cuz I am not an advanced user of course). But here is what did seem useful:

• Back/Forward editor navigation buttons

Ha! That was it for me. Guess that means I am no hurry to try this. Also, my searches for people who were able to use the Android plugin with Indigo were mixed....

Stability - Eclipse vs Visual Studio

I spent alot of time with both Visual Studio and Eclipse over the last year. I have to say, i am impressed with Eclipse' stability. I edit, I launch help, I run the Android simulator, I connect it to my phone and I do that over and over and have not seen either a hang or a crash in probably >100 hours of work. Not bad for a free product.

On the other hand, I used Visual Studio 2008 and although it is a big improvement over 2005 as far as stability goes, I've had the following issues:

• Editting occassionally freezes (1-2 seconds?) on my laptop (simple projects)
• Visual Studio editor will freeze at work (complex Enterprise projects). This happens once or twice a week.
• Visual Studio will crash at work (couple times a week), but of course it restarts right away.

So what would be the best investment for me right now? To buy Visual Studio 2010 at ~ $500 and learn about its new features, or continue learning Eclipse? OR, I could upgrade Eclipse (also free I believe).

HMMMMM, well its a Walmart world but I'll think about it a little more.

Learning to Love Eclipse

Its still clunky to use Eclipse after using Visual Studio for so long, but the good news is that it gets better the more you use it.

Popup help - I love that help windows popup when you click on a type

Not only do I get a quick reference on the type I am trying to use, but it tells me right away if the type or method is obsolete. In many cases it then tells me what I should use instead. I can click into the help window and then scroll through it for in depth reading or dismiss it.

Suggestions - I love that whenever I make a mistake (underlined in red), I can click on my mistake and I get suggestions which Eclipse can carry out for me.

Things like importing packages or implementing interfaces or creating new types/methods using the missing name.

Updates itself

I already had the android plugin, but to add the google plugin and sdk, I didn't have to even leave Eclipse. I just used the "Install New Software" feature and it went and downloaded/installed it all for me. I'm hoping updates work just as well.

Outline view - I like to put the outline view on the right side, it makes navigating through a file much easier than scrolling up and down to find things.