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I read the following in the winter 14 release notes for the Force.com IDE:

https://wiki.developerforce.com/page/Force.com_IDE_Release_Notes#Supported_Platforms

"Eclipse Platform Version 4.2 "Juno" Note: The Winter ’14 release no longer supports Eclipse version 3.x. If you rely on Eclipse 3.x, you can use an older version of the Force.com IDE, but older versions will not be updated with the latest metadata enhancements."

I'm currently using Eclipse 3.7 on Windows 7(64bit). I'm the only developer in my organization using Eclipse at present. It looks like I could leave my Eclipse setup as is if I don't need any new features.

Have you experienced any major advantages/disadvantages from upgrading to 4.2(and the new metadata updates)?

edited I have accepted an answer, but I'm interested in feedback and will vote up additional good responses that appear here.

Jagular
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2 Answers2

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I upgraded from 3.7 (Indigo) to 4.2 (Juno SR 2) a few months ago. I've encountered no downsides - it's largely been no differences to me as far as Eclipse features go. Subjectively, it feels a bit faster to me.

As far as losing access to metadata updates: Remember that the Force.com platform is updated 3 times each year. Each release adds features, and increments the version of all APIs, including the Metadata API. For example, I'm pretty sure that your 3.7 eclipse install will flag an error for @TestVisible, even though you can save the code to the server and it will work; this is included in the most recent Force.com IDE update. Eventually you may find that some features do not work correctly or sync correctly with your org. Unless you are maintaining a package that is specifically sticking with an older API version, I recommend using the newest version of the IDE available.

Salesforce.com has recently announced that they will continue to update and support the Force.com IDE, including a number of enhancements to take advantage of the newest APIs, see here for more details. You'll need to get the latest version of the tools to get these benefits. And that applies to any tool - mavensmate updates for each release as well, as do the Force.com Data Loader, SoqlExplorer, etc.

Community
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Jason Clark
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If you're looking into upgrading your dev environment I'll throw out mavensmate:

http://mavensmate.com/

A great open source IDE connector for force that is in active development. I switched from Eclipse to Sublime Text + Mavensmate about a year back and didn't look back for a moment.

http://www.sublimetext.com/

Stephen
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