NetBeans 5.0 Released

pgsqlDAO writes "NetBeans 5.0 has been released. The new version of the cross platform, extensible, award winning Integrated Development Environment (IDE) comes out with some impressive features that make developing GUI and Web applications easier as well as new modules for creating extensions to NetBeans. The new Matisse GUI Builder makes it easier to layout professional looking windows and dialog boxes. On the web front you can register JBoss and Weblogic servers to deploy and test your applications intuitively from within the IDE. Better integration with popular web frameworks such as JavaServer Faces and Struts has been added including templates for the creation of JSF Managed Beans, Struts Actions, and Struts Form Beans. Other features included better tools for Web Services, Version Control, Debugging, Code Completion, Refactoring and more. Sun has also set up a free beta program to provide technical support to developers."

Comments

I really like netbeans

[Deinesh]

I am a beginer when it comes to J2EE technology. I have been in Eclipse land, even paid $ for MyEclipse, but I have always come back to Netbeans (4.1) - It just works right out of the box - no need to go hunting for plugins, figuring out how they work... In addition to that the IDE seems to follow (from a beginners perspective) the Sun Specs to the dot, so the code/xml produced should be extremely portable. Another thing I really liked about Netbeans is that it defaults to the Sun Standardized stuff (atleast when it comes to EJB's) - Instead of making you massage XDoclet to get the beans you want (MyEclipse), it has a very nice GUI for both the web.xml and ejb-jar.xml files. Forgot to mention the nice GUI for creating the beans themselves :D. My complements to the Netbeans team, I really like their product. Just my thoughts, take it with a lot of salt, I am just a beginer.

Re:I really like netbeans

[LDoggg_]

You might want to give eclipse another shot.
Eclpse Webtools just recently went 1.0 and it inlcludes much of the stuff that you would pay mycelcipse for.

Solving the GUI layout manager problem

[Latent Heat]

Looks like Java Swing may have solved the GUI layout manager problem. VB/Delphi using pixel placement layout allow you to place the controls on a form just so, but what about resize? I know, I heard, use anchors, but you end up doing a lot of tinkering with anchors and with panels within panels within panels to get things anchored right. Anchors in Delphi can be like a bad case of Swing BorderLayout.

The Matisse layout manager allows direct placement, but it offers guidelines and snap-to-grid hints, and it auto-places anchors for resizing. On the other hand, there is this JAR file one has to distribute with one's apps to get this new layout capability.

Could this finally be Java Swing as the VB killer? What I mean by this is that Swing is criticized for clumsy repaint, for ugly look-and-feel, for slow, etc. But is it good enough? VB apps are not known for speed or well-thought GUI design. For a lot of apps (whipping off a bunch of forms as a front-end to something) these are not considerations. What is a consideration is that someone versed in VB is not going to put up with Swing layout managers. If VB was the killer development app that kept people on Windows, this thing may help people break free.

Re:Solving the GUI layout manager problem

[13rian]

The problem with visual designers is that:

a. They either muck with your code by generating/parsing code or they use a proprietary format
b. you can't touch the generated code
c. you need to ensure that the version of the tool your using and the generated layout code are in synch (not a problem now, but what happens to your layouts with Matisse 2.0 rolls around?)
d. They require everyone to use the same tool
e. and probably the most important thing, they don't handle dynamic forms

Matisse, while an accomplished tool, still suffers from these problems.

Hand coded layouts are still the way to go in my opinion.

[disclaimer - The following is promotion of a product I have commercial interest in - stop if you're offended]
Now traditionally hand coding has been a real PITA, but I just released a new layout manager that solves a lot of the headaches of current layout managers. Check it out at http://www.zonelayout.com/.

Anotehr thing I like about NetBeans...

[SuperKendall]

I also haev used eclpise, but often wander back to NetBeans...

One great feature is that it takes so little time in NetBeans to simply mount a source tree, then attach a the debugger to a remote VM and be debugging code in 1/2 hour. Made it great for helping debug other peoples code, sometimes who did not know how to use a debugger at all.

Award Winning

[hayriye]

When I see "...award winning..." in a text, I stop reading the rest.