Eclipse is a multi-language integrated development environment (IDE). The IDE is written mostly in Java and it released under the Eclipse Public License, which means it is open source and free. This has allowed this IDE to support such programming languages as C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP and others. Eclipse also offers the capability of developing applications for Mobile devices, being promoted as the IDE of choice for Android developers.
As a whole, the IDE is one of the most complete and powerful development environments on the market. There has been much debate in the Eclipse vs NetBeans issue, where some people claim Eclipse is not as intuitive as NetBeans. The strong aspects of Eclipse are that it is free and is in constant development, every time new updated plug-ins come into play allowing developers to take advantage of constantly changing technologies. Eclipse also uses considerably less resources than other IDEs making it ideal for lower-end computers. In the end, Eclipse is one of the most flexible and powerful IDEs on the market.
