I am an ABAP Developer since 2002. I started development with R/3 3.1i. 2007 we made an upgrade to R/3 Enterprise (4.7) and since 2010 I work with ECC 6.0 EhP4. In 2011 we started an upgrade to EhP6 and with this upgrade we got the NW 7.31. At the same time the first ADT were published at SCN. I asked our basis for the correct support package (SP4) for using the ADT. As an Eclipse Newbie it was an adventure to install the tools and the depending packages. For all who knows only the easy way to install the ADTs via the update site, here is a link to a how-to guide in the beginning "Enabling ABAP in Eclipse". Now it is very easy to install the ADTs and keep them up to date via the update site https://tools.hana.ondemand.com/#abap
The features around the ADT rise with every release. Unfortunately many features need higher NW Releases as we are running, but some features are already downgraded to older release and patch levels. In the beginning I have developed with SE80 and ADTs parallel because it was a major change for me and it need some time to become familiar. Now I'm developing about 90% only in the ADTs. If you are familiar with Eclipse development will be faster as in SE80. The support from SAP relating the ADTs are excellent. thomasfiedler and his team make a very good job and I'm looking forward to the next features. With the new feature explorer I believe it will be much easier to become familiar with the ADTs.
I had called the feature explorer and after a half day development I have completed the beginner's tour automatically during my daily work. This means I already use all the features of the beginner tour during my daily work.
My favourite feature is the code completion (CTRL+SPACE), the "ABAP Element Info" (F2), the quick type hierarchy (CTRL+T), the quick fix (CTRL+1). Another great advantage of the Eclipse development is the local version history. After every saving of the source code, Eclipse creates a local version. You can compare these versions with the current version. This is independed from the SAP version history.
I can only recommend that try it, if you meet the requirements for ADT.
Regards,
Dirk
