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Are there plugins for Ant, Checkstyle, FindBugs, Bugzilla, etc, like there are for Eclipse? What about subversion support?

The project system of NetBeans 4.0 is based on Ant. NetBeans has a built in CVS client and I think it works with Subversion too.

There is also a lot of extensions for Netbeans: http://www.netbeans.org/catalogue/index.html

NetBeans 4.0 Release Plan: http://www.netbeans.org/community/releases/40/inde x.html

Are there plugins for Ant, Checkstyle, FindBugs, Bugzilla, etc, like there are for Eclipse? What about subversion support?

The project system of NetBeans 4.0 is based on Ant. NetBeans has a built in CVS client and I think it works with Subversion too.

There is also a lot of extensions for Netbeans: http://www.netbeans.org/catalogue/index.html

NetBeans 4.0 Release Plan: http://www.netbeans.org/community/releases/40/inde x.html

NetBeans is NOT Open Source software. While parts of it may qualify as such, the IDE as distributed by http://www.netbeans.org/ is not.

Below I cite sample parts of NetBeans license. There is "Binary Code License Agreement" which gives us no rights to redistribute and "Supplemental License Terms" for each part, which, basically, allows us to redistribute it in binary form only, unchanged. And such terms are repeated in almost exact same way for all other parts.

As far as I can tell it's not even close to open source. However, if someone knows better I'd like to be proven wrong, but facts, please, not opinions.

Here is first paragraph of NetBeans license:

1. The following software products found in the NetBeans Build are governed by the Binary Code License Agreement including its applicable Supplemental Terms and Conditions ("BCL"):
* XML Parser v.1.1 (jaxp and parser)
* JavaHelp v.2.0
* JavaC Compiler
* J2EE Deployment APIs 1.1
* J2EE Management 1.0
* EJB Enterprise Java Beans 2.0
* JMX 1.2
* J2EE Editor
* XML resolver 1.0
* JMI 1.0

Here are two first paragraphs of Sun Microsystems, Inc. Binary Code License Agreement:

1. LICENSE TO USE. Sun grants you a non-exclusive and non-
transferable license for the internal use only of the
accompanying software and documentation and any error
corrections provided by Sun (collectively "Software"), by the
number of users and the class of computer hardware for which the
corresponding fee has been paid.

2. RESTRICTIONS Software is confidential and copyrighted.
Title to Software and all associated intellectual property
rights is retained by Sun and/or its licensors. Except as
specifically authorized in any Supplemental License Terms, you
may not make copies of Software, other than a single copy of
Software for archival purposes. Unless enforcement is
prohibited by applicable law, you may not modify, decompile, or
reverse engineer Software. You acknowledge that Software is not
designed, licensed or intended for use in the design,
construction, operation or maintenance of any nuclear facility.
Sun disclaims any express or implied warranty of fitness for
such uses. No right, title or interest in or to any trademark,
service mark, logo or trade name of Sun or its licensors is
granted under this Agreement.

Of course there are supplemental license terms for each part mentioned above, let's see what rights they give us for "JAVA(TM) DEVELOPMENT TOOLS JAXP.JAR AND PARSER.JAR ARCHIVE FILES FROM JAVA API FOR XML PARSING, VERSION 1.0":

1. Internal Use and Development License Grant. Subject to the
terms and conditions of this Agreement, including, but not
limited to, Section 3 (JavaTM Technology Restrictions) of these
Supplemental Terms, Sun grants you a non-exclusive, non-
transferable, limited license to reproduce internally and use
internally the binary form of the XML JAR Files Software for the
sole purpose of designing, developing and testing your JavaTM
API for XML Parsing compatible parsers (the "Programs").

2. License to Distribute Software. In addition to the license
granted in Section 1 (Internal Use and Development License
Grant) of these Supplemental Terms, subject to the terms and
conditions of this Agreement, Sun grants you a non-exclusive,
non- transferable, limited license to reproduce and distribute
the XML JAR Files Software in binary code form only, provided
that you: (i) (a) either distribute the XML JAR Files Software
complete and unmodified in their original Java Archive file, but
only bundled as part of your Programs into which the XML JAR
Files Software is incorporated, and do not distribute additional
software intended to replace any components of the XML JAR Files
Software; or

The NetBeans IDE is also open source. It is a decent visual editor for Java Plataform development.

The NetBeans IDE is also open source. It is a decent visual editor for Java Plataform development.

First, an initial startup of a JVM does take up a larger memory footprint. But subsequent calls to the JVM do not... it's that initial runtime environment that needs resources. So if you're running several Java apps at a time (such as NetBeans, ConsultComm, Resin and other fun stuff memory and resource allocation is still much more conservative than apps that would exist outside of a runtime environment.

The original abstract windowing toolkit was kludgy, but the advent of the Swing API and the native look-and-feel within Java make things run and look like native apps. And with NetBeans GUI editor I can build windows and forms faster than a VB app in Visual Studio. Plus things are nicely skinnable by using GTK themes, QT themes or a combination of the two.

Plus let's not forget JDBC, something that I just can't live without anymore. Take a single file, drop it into your classpath, and you have instant access to whatever database you want. Want to change your database? No prob. Just drop in a different JAR file as your JDBC driver and tweak your SQL as needed. No connection recoding necessary. Much, much, much better than installing new ODBC drivers.

And system independence isn't to be taken for granted, either. I like being able to just create one package and have it run on my Linux box, then hand it to a WinXP user without recompilation. Keeps my apps easily cross-platform.

Three things have changed: broadband has meant that applets are not as slow to load as they used to be; machines have got faster; and JVMs have got better (including plugins).

In the project I'm working on (I'm a Java developer, mostly servlet/JSP/struts) we're deploying an applet to provide a richer user experience which HTML alone would not provide. I would not have dreamt of providing this solution even a year ago.

The applet is very usable, only takes a second to load the first time it's used (and thereafter is cached) and the user has a better experience of our product. We're telling our customers to use JRE 1.4.2.

The trick is to use applets when they are appropriate. This is, after all, true of all technologies.

I believe that eclipse http://www.eclipse.org/ and netbeans http://www.netbeans.org/ have both made a huge contribution to showing how Java applications can be used for serious development projects. There is now a huge amount of support for the Java development community, with lots of free libraries (Apache Foundation rocks http://www.apache.org/!) and some great stuff coming out of Sun (Java Server Faces).

Put it all together and you have a very rich environment for creating serious multi-tier applications using web or application front-ends.

For me, the icing on the cake would be the development of a forms standard which allows application-like front ends with a web architecture. Maybe XForms? XUL? This is what our customers want. Combine it with a strict and workable MVC architecture and it'd be my perfect development environment!

One possibility is Netbeans, which I kind of like. It's free and super-easy to mount against existing code bases for debugging (Mount filesystem, point at source, done! Then you can attach to a VM for remote debugging).

Another possibility is IntilliJ, which a lot of people seem to like a lot - especially if they do not like Eclipse. It does cost money.

Then there is also the Big Mac Daddy of IDE's, JBuilder. That can cost a lot if you want the advanced features, but I don't think it's much if you want the basics.

You may notice a common theme here - all sorts of Java IDE's, and unlike other apps they all actually run under Linux. That's because unlike common perception Java desktop apps can work very well, and as all these are written in Java you get the benefit of being able to use them in Linux.

I do also run Eclipse under Linux and it works fine - I'm using Redhat (company standard).

However, even with all the IDE's you can still get far just with a good text editor and Ant, a very power build tool for Java.

As an added bonus, both are cross-platform. ;-)

...and netbeans, though the license was the Sun Public License (like the Mozilla license), rather than the GPL.

...though I'm more an eclipse kinda guy, myself.

I guess I am just really bitter about GTK+ because I use Eclipse, for various other reasons. Why does SWT have to use GTK+? In fact, why does SWT exist in the first place?

Maybe I should just switch to NetBeans.

What!? You mean I can get a free copy of the Netbeans IDE with Java Desktop? How can they afford to do that?

Netbeans

http://www.netbeans.org/community/articles/tiger/3 6Tiger.html

Yeah, its about Sun claiming to be supporting the open source community, while simultaneously refusing to do anything for said community.

I've been coding in Qt about as long as I've been coding in Java. If you think Qt is a beautiful API, you really gotta get out more.
Java from Sun is much better.

Try netbeans!

• We need to use the most expensive JSP interpreter we can find. not interpreted?
• We need to use the most expensive JSP IDE we can find. The best ide's for this are free: Netbeans and Eclipse
• We need a separate computer for each person (including those who will work primarily from their computer located off-site), plus a test server and a backup for the test server and an extra computer just in case. Have they never heard of VMWare!
• We need to make the database as related as possible - if you can make a lookup table for a Yes/No field, then by all means you should do it! This is not necessarily a bad thing
• Make sure each and every table has an auto-increment integer index, expecially those tables that will contain over 100 million records. Never use a trigger to "autonumber" rows from a sequence. This destroys all the power behind sequences in Oracle, and screws up the ability to do transactions.
• Development time must take at least 18 months to provide a proof-of-concept, but cannot produce anything that may be actually used. I don't even understand that
  

there are RedHat RPMs, I think there's a package for Debian, there's a std binary distro and a FreeBSD port. It's not *that* hard to pull down an RPM or a tarball.

The license issue has been beaten to death. Java runs on a shitload of platforms, a lot of them *nixes, that's the bottom line. Being 'part of' a distro is a relative term.

Well, the best Java IDE is already free (in all senses).

What you're saying does not make sense to me. If one had an open source version of the JVM, one could run Netbeans or Eclipse, two of the best IDEs/tools for Java. (Both of which are free, open source projects.)

What it looks like Sun is thinking of doing is providing an open-source, free Java implementation, with a license that makes the open source community happy. Contrast this with Sun handing the Java platform and releasing it to an independent standards process. (That's probably very unlikely to happen!) I think this is a wise move, good for Sun shareholders and good for us.

Now, if you are saying "the closed source Java VM implementation will be better!", ... of course! Just look at what Sun has down with SunOffice vs. OpenOffice, and IBM has done with Eclipse vs. Websphere Application Developer, etc. It's a good compromise. If that's not good enough for you, why not focus your time on asking Steve Jobs to open source and give away Mac OS X. You'll be as successful!

-Steve

Sun has their own, free (Mozilla public license derrived) Java IDE.

You don't know what you're talking about. Sun gives away Forte for Java under an Open Source branding (think Mozilla/Netscape). The real reasons for this squabble go back to '01 when IBM released Eclipse after inviting every company except Sun to join the project. At the time, Netbeans/Forte was very mature and would have been a good choice for IBM to build their own platform off of. Instead, they named their product as a way of snubbing Sun, and used their own proprietary GUI API so the two projects could never interoperate.

Well considering Java's startup time removes it from all manner of applications, it's a bit of a strawman to argue that startup time doesn't matter.

*cough* *cough*
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit
Bullshit

Please take your bullshit trolling elsewhere. There are those of us with work to do.

Rave is based on NetBeans technology but they don't mention that in the article.

Came back with more knowledge and was disappointed by speed (ran on a slow machine while trying IDEs from Borland and Forte)

Anyone know any good/quick IDEs for Java? (that would install on a RH9 distro, that is)

OBDisc:I don't know anything about your product...

Seems to me that if it's a modular/plugin architecture then the framework and some modules can be OSS whilst other modules are proprietary. As i understand it, this is how the netbeans IDE works. (let's try not to get bogged down flaming SUN's Public License - i'm sure this kind of thing could work under an Apache License as well)

/t

So why C# instead Java? Well if you're not concerned with being locked into a single platform (which has the lions share of the market locked up) you get all of the advantages of Java with quite a few extras thrown in.

Lion's share of what market? Last time I checked, most people were using neither .Net nor Java on their web/application servers, its more likely to be PHP or Perl. Tell me again why I should base my choice of platform on what other people are using.

Applications which look like Native Win32 apps. Sorry, Java looks like ass.

Java's awt toolkit uses NATIVE components for rendering. Java's swing toolkit is 100% skinable so if it looks like shit, talk to the developer of the app.

Applications that just seem faster. Sorry, Java just makes my new box feel like an 8088.

So I guess you don't bother with device drivers either. All that hardware abstraction just makes apps "feel" slower. Jitted Java is no slower than C++ if it is written properly.

A great set of development tools and a huge body of excellent documentation.

Isn't it crazy how there are no sources of information on Java. I guess C# has it all over Java on this one. I guess the FREE development environments like, eclipse or netbeans or jcreator or Sun ONE Studio just don't provide anything useful to a developer, except may a choice in their ide. You can always buy a Java IDE from Borland or Oracle, or a thousand other companies.

The ability to pre-compile applications, negating speed disadvantages of the JIT compiler.

gcj

Like I said, .Net is Java with the added drawback of locking you into a single platform.

Can you think of even one Java application that you use on your desktop and like?

Actually, yes. Jedit.
And yes.
And yes.
And so on.

I like Python too, and choose it over Java if it's really applicable. But not understanding 'the allure of Java' is a little overinflated don't you think? The apps above are good reasons to use Java, and they're not even Javas prime homeground. Maybe you haven't done any serious server side programming or tight client-server stuff, but be ashured that there are very good reasons to use Java. Especially with a big team and an emphasis on solid OOAD.

Java has some very good IDEs, even compared to Visual Studio. Have a look at Eclipse and Netbeans for two good open source IDEs and IntelliJ for an excellent (and not that expensive) commercial IDE.

What's the difference between those and IntelliJ? Anything compellingly different? I've nearly decided to commit to eclipse, so if there's something better out there I want to know before I get settled!

Is IntelliJ free? (I saw something about a "trial key") Open source?

Another entry into programming is creating web pages, by tweaking them with JavaScript, and eventually CGI scripts. Really anything that allows tweaking is good, such as tweaking Mozilla or the computer desktop. Programming is about tweaking the world.

Once they feel ready to transition to a full programming language (Java, C++, etc.), there are ways to ramp up to that too. JavaScript is a great way to learn object-oriented concepts. Learning game programming really motivates kids and they learn about 3D graphics too (Nehe and GameTutorials). For building real desktop applications, NetBeans and the free JBuilder edition let you visually design java user interfaces, but something like Thinlets simplifies java development greatly (and introduces you to XML, see also other XUL-based development tools). Of course there are thousands of resources out there for learning java, see Sun's New to Java center.

Lastly, I think kids should keep a blog or a journal somewhere. If you have webspace, set them up a MovableType blog and let them tweak everything they want (adding commenting, shoutboxes, javascript goodies, etc.).

By sticking to Java the child will tend to learn clean programming design and algorithms, rather than wild pointer debugging tricks (also the case with BASIC I might add). As an added bonus the child will be learning one of the most commercially viable languages, and one with a lnog lifetime ahead of it IMO. I'd also begin exposure to SQL (MySQL or Postgres) when you felt the child was up to the added complexity and workload. Up to this point the cost has been $0.

Once the child (now 14 or 15 I'm sure;) was proficient coding in Java, I'd suggest exploring C, assembler, drivers and low-level machine architecture. Within a couple of years any CS program in the country should be easy pickings.

"You are saying that Sun is extending the JVM to support generics in 1.5? Ummm--where exactly does it say that?"

From the link...

Q.)Do you want to give us a simple take-home message for each of the six areas of improvement?

A.) I'll give it a whirl...

* Generics - Provides compile-time type safety for collections and eliminates the drudgery of casting.

* Enhanced for loop - Eliminates the drudgery and error-proneness of iterators.

* Autoboxing/unboxing - Eliminates the drudgery of manual conversion between primitive types (such as int) and wrapper types (such as Integer).

* Typesafe enums - Provides all the well-known benefits of the Typesafe Enum pattern (Effective Java, Item 21) without the verbosity and the error-proneness.

* Static import - Lets you avoid qualifying static members with class names, without the shortcomings of the Constant Interface antipattern (Effective Java, Item 17).

* Metadata - Lets you avoid writing boilerplate code, by enabling tools to generate it from annotations in the source code. This leads to a "declarative" programming style where the programmer says what should be done and tools emit the code to do it.

" C# looks like a pretty general purpose, modern programming language, but Java clearly is not because it is not a good language for scientific and numerical computing, and because it does not interface well with existing C/C++ code"

Scientific and numerical computing is not general purpose. Fortran, ADA, and Modula-2 are used for these specialized market. I would not want to use C# or Java for writing any of these applications. C++/C is ok for this use. In your market you need absolute controll over your app and java certainly does not allow this.

Java is ok for general purpose computing. The vm is getting better but still sucks! Just load netbeans if you do not believe me. I like C#'s approach to compiling to CLR .net interface that can integrate more with the os and apps written in other languages. Also you can compile native .exe's with Java lacks for general programming.

Java can not do integrate. I can not write a com+ application in it. Thats for sure.

Sun is so scared of it turning into c++ that it can not have it compiled to native executables. I find this dumb since it was the lack of libraries is what killed it since a proprietary market for these came by. Microsoft also saw it as a way to force developers to use Windows.

Proprietary libraries can easily be added to java as well. I guess sun was worried that third party libarary makers would only target Windows if java ever became natively executable.

A .net like framework that would be natively compiled on each java client would be perfect and would speed it up.

• It offers features I can not find in Eclipse
• it's more mature
• it's easily extendable. (some parts of the development cycle of the company I work for are already implemented as netbeans-extensions)

• you have to get used to it.
• it uses Swing instead of SWT. (with execution and startup speed really improving in the last releases.)

Try out Netbeans. www.netbeans.org. It's a bit of a memory hog, but it has a lot of nice features. Especially integration with Tomcat, Ant, Junit, and a lot of other downloadable modules. Eclipse is ok, but it is lacking in a few of the features that I really like about netbeans.

While eclipse is great, Netbeans has more features. I prefer eclipse because it uses a native interface and has refactoring. The most feature-rich IDE I've used for Java, however, is netbeans. If you don't mind a slow user interface it's a great tool to look at.

http://www.xemacs.org
what more do you need? ;-)

If you want a *real* IDE, I'd check out IntelliJ's Idea product. It's a few hundred $$$. Lots of folks like Netbeans and IBM's Eclipse as well (sorry, no url to eclipse, but I'm sure you can find it). The latter 2 are opensource.

...what the relationship between the netbeans effort and Sun is. Is it like Mozilla and AOL?

Off the top of my head... yes and no.

Mozilla and NetBeans both started out as college research projects; both grew into businesses; both were assimilated by larger businesses; and both were eventually released as open source. NetBeans is availabile under a variant of the Mozilla license.

That said, I think NetBeans is more important to Sun than Mozilla is to AOL. As far as I know, AOL doesn't get any commercial fruits from Mozilla directly, and itisn't being used in any significant commercial projects. Sun, however, does market some heavish software on top of NetBeans (Sun ONE Studio), and so do several other companies.

...what the relationship between the netbeans effort and Sun is. Is it like Mozilla and AOL?

Off the top of my head... yes and no.

Mozilla and NetBeans both started out as college research projects; both grew into businesses; both were assimilated by larger businesses; and both were eventually released as open source. NetBeans is availabile under a variant of the Mozilla license.

That said, I think NetBeans is more important to Sun than Mozilla is to AOL. As far as I know, AOL doesn't get any commercial fruits from Mozilla directly, and itisn't being used in any significant commercial projects. Sun, however, does market some heavish software on top of NetBeans (Sun ONE Studio), and so do several other companies.

...what the relationship between the netbeans effort and Sun is. Is it like Mozilla and AOL?

Off the top of my head... yes and no.

Mozilla and NetBeans both started out as college research projects; both grew into businesses; both were assimilated by larger businesses; and both were eventually released as open source. NetBeans is availabile under a variant of the Mozilla license.

That said, I think NetBeans is more important to Sun than Mozilla is to AOL. As far as I know, AOL doesn't get any commercial fruits from Mozilla directly, and itisn't being used in any significant commercial projects. Sun, however, does market some heavish software on top of NetBeans (Sun ONE Studio), and so do several other companies.

well, taste differs. if you want to have VB-like drag-n-drop UI design functionality why not go for Fotre (or it's m,ore on the edge cousin Netbeans) or go and buy JBuilder from Borland. THere're other RAD IDEs that spring to mind as well, VisualCafe' for example (haven't used it for ages though - NetBeans and IntelliJ does all I want)

I tried out Eclipse when it was in beta and didn't like it. The ui felt uncomfortable and I did not like the everything is a plug-in method.

I use netbeans and find its a perfect ballance between functionality and slimness. You may want to download and give it a shot. Eclispe seemed to bloat very quickly if you add all the plugins and the fileview gets clogged easily. Of coarse this was the beta version so I will give it another shot.

This is about tools, not languages.

Tools should make your life easier, not harder. Unfortunately, many Java IDEs fail to take this concept quite far enough.

I've used NetBeans for several years, but having finished a few weeks of C# work, I am now missing the IDEs code folding.

Yes, I know that's available in JEdit.

In fact, that's part of the problem. Anything feature you could possibly want from a Java IDE is out there. Some in NetBeans, some in Eclipse, some in JEdit, some in Idea, (the list goes on) but not all of them in one place.

-- Aumaden

NetBeans IDE
LimeWire Gnutella Client

Having a modern, Swing-enabled JVM included with Windows will hopefully lead to even more Java-based applications. Then again, so would a good IDE with a form-builder. NetBeans and Apple's Project Builder do a pretty good job though.

A good, free IDE is not a pipe dream!...Although I've found at the rate Borland and Visual Age crank out releases, you can get the trial versions, and go back and forth and never be using an illegal copy

If the language can be compiled to Java bytecodes, then any JVM-supporting language should be able to use your compiled, not-from-java code. I say should, and not will, because it's now an issue of the compiler than the JVM. If you can compile against only the bytecodes (like javac can), then there's no issues.

On the other hand, you can always determine the Java-esque structure of your not-from-Java bytecodes using Introspection, for which there are tools (like Netbeans) that provide graphical views of this. It should be possible to generate any "headers" or their like, if the language and the compiler require it.

For the less-then-initiated, more JVM-supporting languages can be found here.

Nothing would be worse than M$ buying borland. It would be the end of JBuilder--a fantastic java IDE. Not to mention delphi and KYLIX! This would be B*A*D.

given the licensing of JBuilder it fits perfectly into the microsoft product range. (restrictive, enforced, single-user licenses for about 4000 Euro per place)

this was the reason the company I worked at chose NetBeans over JBuilder.

<off-topic>

</off-topic>

Actually Swing is quite adequate for desktop applications, and some very complex desktop applications have been written using Swing (such as Netbeans). The main problem with Swing is that if anything, it's *too* complex and tends to run visibly slow on anything less than a 1GHz machine.

I think Swing's sluggishness has been a detriment to Java. Recent model JVM's with JIT compilation are quite fast at executing Java code, but people who use a Swing app on a slow machine will say Java is slow when what they really mean is Swing is slow.

I've often thought over the last few years that we've made too little progress in making programmers more productive. I largely blame that on Microsoft, simply because it drives more software development with it's tools than any other entity. One language I've categorically made a decision to avoid is Visual Basic. I have always felt it was basically (sorry) a waste of brain cells. It has certainly done nothing to advance the state of the art.

In my opinion, one of the best things to come along in a long time is Java. The gentle reader may recall earlier posts along those lines. I enjoy C, and have spent the majority of my career doing C and C++. However, I have also spent _way_ too much time tracking down memory-related bugs. Often, they were in third party code. That is no way to run a railroad.

Java addresses almost all of the glaring deficiencies of C++, both in language design and in runtime safety. In my opinion, the best programming tools will be those that enable single programmers to tackle larger and larger projects.

Compared with C++, Java enables me to tackle much more ambitious projects with confidence. A team approach can never attain the efficiency of a single programmer approach. The "sweet spot" of software engineering efficiency is the largest project one person can tackle. Extreme programming is a useful hybrid that attempts to turn two programmers into one programmer. ;-) (Also teams can be nearly as efficient as single programmers if the system is properly decomposed into subsystems separated by simple interfaces. This rarely happens smoothly, in my experience. It takes a top notch group of people.)

One last note on Java - performance is now almost completely on par with C++. On my most recent round of benchmarks, Java (JDK 1.4.1_01) on both Linux and Windows outperformed C++ (gcc 3 and VC 6) on most tests. Dynamic compilation and aggressive inlining are that effective. The VM also soundly spanked the gcj ahead of time compiler in gcc 3. It thoroughly rocks to have truly cross-platform code that runs faster than native! Think how many religous wars would be avoided if 99%+ of software was available on all OS platforms...and think how much it would help Linux! :-)

If you want to see what's out there for Java, download either the NetBeans IDE project, or the Eclipse IDE. Both are free and each has its strong points. NetBeans is a Swing app and includes a Swing GUI designer. Eclipse uses a new open source "native widget wrapper" library from IBM called SWT which has it's interesting points. You'll also need a Java VM (there are also others available from IBM etc.).

One last thought - wouldn't it be cool if web browsers had support for something like Java? I mean, you could deploy apps just by putting them on a web page! It wouldn't matter what the target platform was! What a great idea! (This paragraph was sarcasm in case you were wondering.)