1. Eclipse compiles on the fly. This is very cool and as you type code, syntax and compile-time errors are identified. Yay! This does have a cost... and Eclipse is more sluggish during editing... oh well :)
2. Autocomplete. This functionality helps you to more quickly (sometimes...) find the methods that you wish to invoke on objects. You just start typing the method, and Eclipse gives you possible function calls with argument types. Seriously cool!
3. Free debug environment.