IDEA Ultimate or GoLand
I currently use JetBrains GoLand and I have a personal license for it. The account area has a link for me to switch my license over to IDEA Ultimate. Is IDEA Ultimate replacing the other language specific IDEs? I mostly code in GoLang not Java so why am I prompted to switch to IDEA Ultimate an IDE for Java?
This plugin by JetBrains in their own words "extends IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate with Go-specific coding assistance and tool integrations and has everything you could find in GoLand. Please note that the only compatible IDE is IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate" https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/9568-go
I guess my question at that point why maintain a few dozen IDEs and/or should I just use IDE Ultimate and the Go-plugin? I guess there's slight cost savings if I only write Gocode and don't use JetBrains IDEA Ultimate. What's the logic behind all of this? Dinar Gurus
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Historically IntelliJ IDEA was a Java IDE first. While more languages were added to it later, Java remained inside the core, not a plugin. It was hard to decouple Java-specific features from the product, and many users wanted less cluttered IDEs for different languages without Java-specific features. IntelliJ platform has emerged, and different teams started to work on the more lightweight IDEs for languages like Go, PHP, Ruby, Python, etc.
In terms of functionality, IntelliJ IDEA Ultimate is a universal IDE that provides all of the features of other JetBrains IDEs via plugins. If you work with different languages, frameworks and technologies, or plan to expand your personal tech stack, IDEA is a great choice provided that you like your stuff all in one place. Some developers find IDEA's interface too cluttered though, so they prefer a separate IDE for each language/set of problems. At the end of the day, it is a matter of personal preference and financial limitations.
We also have a solution called Toolbox that allows you to organize and maintain multiple IDE installations from a single place.
See also: