The latest release of the open source NetBeans IDE 3.6 is now available. New features include many changes to the window management, Look&Feel, editor, Web/J2EE development helpers, Ant support, and Version control integration.

Press Release: New NetBeans Release Provides Better Integration to Build Web, Rich Desktop and Mobile Java Technology Applications

NetBeans is proud to announce that the NetBeans Integrated Development Environment (IDE) 3.6 is now available. The award-winning NetBeans IDE provides a pure Java technology development environment for Windows, Linux, the Solaris[tm] Operating System or Mac OS X. The demand for NetBeans 3.6, the most current version of the NetBeans software, underscores the popularity of the IDE, with approximately 40,000 downloads of its Early Access version since its release in February 2004. More than 22,000 developers signed-up for the General Availability release.

NetBeans IDE 3.6 Download - http://www.netbeans.org/downloads/ide/index.html

Full Release Statement - http://www.netbeans.org/about/press/205.html

NetBeans 3.6 Resources (What's new, guides, how-tos and more) - http://www.netbeans.org/products/ide/resources.html

Don't hesitate to provide feedback on this latest release to the members of the NetBeans.org project by sending an email to nbusers at netbeans dot org.

install->unload the modules ya dont need and count NullPointerExceptions ....

out of the box!

Tried it... still feels slow and awkward to use compared to slick IDE's like IntelliJ and VS.NET.

Suggestion: Why not focus on speed and bloat reduction in the next release?

Tried it... still feels slow and awkward to use compared to slick IDE's like IntelliJ and VS.NET.Suggestion: Why not focus on speed and bloat reduction in the next release?

Time to change that old 286...

NetBeans has gotten much faster. Some is due to optimization and bloat reduction, some due to JVM improvements. I'm quite happy with it. Not perfect, but none of them are.

I do like the fact that it feels more like a 'whole' IDE than Eclipse does. As others noted, I agree that M8 doesn't seem as sprightly as earlier versions, especially once you load all the modules that are really useful. I think I like the NetBeans philosophy of including more and having it well tested and integrated and allowing you to disable modules than Eclipse's barebones add-as-you-go approach. NB seems more polished. Swing vs. SWT is a non-issue in my opinion.

BTW, one big difference between NetBeans and IntelliJ and VS.NET is that it doesn't cost a cent. Stop complaining.

Regarding the NPEs mentioned earlier, I haven't come across any yet. In previous versions I got one once in a great while. Still get them in Sun ONE Studio on occasion when doing a build. I just rebuild and no big deal.

Can't wait for version 4.0 - this 3.6 is just a preview of the really good stuff.

<rant>
IMHO i think an IDE throwing NPE is rather unacceptable! Free or not. SunONE Studio (Based on NetBeans) is definately not free but throws numerous NPEs. (I think IDEA Intellij is cheaper and is definately less buggy).

In terms of feature set NetBeans is very good. But V3.5.1 was buggy as hell! (for lack of a better phrase...)
</rant>

Hopfully 3.6 will be more stable and have fixed most of the problems. Ill download it and give it a squiz...

Cheers

Smythe...

Yeah, 3.6 is actually stable.
Heah !!! Have u ever tried SUN ONE STUDIO V 5.0 update 1 ?

I suggest that u should try that IDE also. It is excellent.


Sanjeev

SUN ONE Studio throws NPE(s) with extra modules (when downloaded from third parties) from the net. AND BTW these are *NOT* so many that a developer can't handle.

Uhm: you've said it all. Every tool which allows plugins can have exceptions coming from those plugins, but the IDE has nothing to do with them!!

I have been using SUN ONE Studio for last 2 years. I can fix many errors (if thrown)So far as IDEA is concerned, definitely it doesn't throw NPE, but there are other thing where it lags behind.Egs : press CTRL-K or CTRL-L after typing some letters of a variable or ANYTHING (no matter wheather it is in comment or NOT or type of file) and see what SUN ONE STUDIO does.Well, No doubt IDEA has better refactoring support and fast too.But wait NB 4 is coming :)Sanjeev

Sob, ctrl-K and ctrl-L are the ONLY feature I am missing from my older NB days in IDEA. It is true that one learns to live without it, and it's such a little thing that I could implement it by myself if I weren't so lazy...

http://qa.netbeans.org/processes/cat/36/results/ca_results.html

If you participate fully in the NetBeans process then you get to fill out these surveys and help make the product better. This survey showed good results, but not enough people participated. I plan to participate for 4.0.

Well, to tell the truth it was our intention to have 40 participants of the NetCAT program, because we were simply afraid of extensive communication. However, for NetCAT 4.0 we plan to extend this number to say 60 - 80 people.

Jiri Kovalsky
NetCAT 3.6 program coordinator
Sun Microsystems

See, what I think is that u should release a note for ur IDE (SOS) or NB showing the features that other IDE(s) are not having.

I know so many features that other IDE(s) are not having but NB/SOS has.

Why don't u list out those features and publish them on net so that people come to know what they are missing with othere IDE(s) ?

>> because we were simply afraid of extensive communication

Yeah it is true that this communication doesn't lead anybody to a good point. It is better to publish a note showing the capabilities of this IDE.

GiveMeJ

Sanjeev

Some are good, some are slow , some are free and some are useless.
None of them have all features one wants - so you have to compromise at some level. Its hard to convince someone about the IDE you like. I like Eclipse, but then there will be a ton of people bashing me for doing so and give me a list of other IDEs they like. Its like a "political" or "which car do you like" discussion.
    So just enjoy the thread and know some good things about someone else's IDE and not make this thread a longer than expected exchange of "harsh" words for each other.

NetBeans is very very cool IDE. I am very excited about new UI.

Eclipse 3.0 will feature a new look and a ton of new features. Why should I even consider NetBeans? NetBeans still uses Swing which is horrible at memory consumption and speed.

> Eclipse 3.0 will feature a new lookYes, I saw it. Did you? It's ugly.> NetBeans still uses Swing which is horrible at memory consumption and speed.Bla, bla, bla. Ever took a look at Intellij IDEA? It's plain Swing, looks much better than Eclipse and easily outperforms it (at least Eclipse 3.0M8).Who cares about SWT anyway?

Even Netbeans feels quicker than Eclipse, now. If only they'd change those 4 years old icons, even the "I-want-an-ide-that-looks-native" robots would be happy.

> Even Netbeans feels quicker than Eclipse, now. If only they'd change> those 4 years old icons, even the "I-want-an-ide-that-looks-native" > robots would be happyI had a meeting with the graphic design guys yesterday. The new icon design is underway. Look for them to merge into the NB 4 Trunk build some time next month if things go well. :-)-SteveSteve WilsonDirector, NetBeans TechnologySun Microsystems

Ahahah, it seems you Sun folks are beginning to enjoy the warm fuzzy feeling that feedback from satisfied users give. ;)

If only they'd change those 4 years old icons, even the "I-want-an-ide-that-looks-native" robots would be happy.

I dont care about icons. For me it's a tool for work, not something to show off with. BTW I like SWING based IDE's because I often work in Linux and it's very nice to have exactly the same look and feel.

Altough I am Eclipse fun I must admit that you are right. M8 is very slow. I hope Eclipse guys will fix these issues prior to releasing 3.0 final.
And comparing to some new Swing based IDEs (Net Beans 3.6, IDEA or JDeveloper 10g) I can hardly see the difference between SWT and Swing based applications!

Dejan

Altough I am Eclipse fun I must admit that you are right. M8 is very slow.

M7 is slow as well. WEBLogic was significantly faster (under Eclipse) in last stable release of Eclipse.

I have used NetBeans for a while. I cannot understand what people see in Eclipse it doesn't have 'out-of-the-box' any tools for GUI design nor XML or am I missing something ? I would love to know I am wrong but until recently I have not seen these tools in the IDE.

> Eclipse 3.0 will feature a new lookYes, I saw it. Did you? It's ugly.> NetBeans still uses Swing which is horrible at memory consumption and speed.Bla, bla, bla. Ever took a look at Intellij IDEA? It's plain Swing, looks much better than Eclipse and easily outperforms it (at least Eclipse 3.0M8).Who cares about SWT anyway?

Everyone quote "Intellij IDEA" the only or one of the few examples to show that Swing can be as good as other alternatives. But the fact is there is no much such good Swing examples and NetBeans is exactly one of tons examples showing that it is not easy to build a good GUI using Swing.

I use CVS as the source code repository and find that Netbeans supports CVS much better than Eclipse.

I like the Netbeans concept of mounting any directory on to project instead of having to copy the files to workspace in Eclipse for already existing source files

I see that Netbeans is getting faster every release and the opposite for Eclipse

Hi all,

Just to let you know... You can use project files that live outside of the Eclipse workspace. And if these files have CVS info attached (CVS dirs), Eclipse can take it into account.

So it is possible to just "attach" Eclipse to an existing CVS source tree, without having to check it fresh out into the workspace...

What I prefer in Eclipse : it works the way I like.
What I hate in Netbeans : it doesn't work the way I like.
Different people, different IDEs...

Chris

Just to let you know... You can use project files that live outside of the Eclipse workspace. And if these files have CVS info attached (CVS dirs), Eclipse can take it into account.So it is possible to just "attach" Eclipse to an existing CVS source tree, without having to check it fresh out into the workspace...

I want to know how to do this.

Is it possible to do in Eclipse 2.1.2?

Or do I need to use Eclipse 3.x ?

I want to know how to do this. Is it possible to do in Eclipse 2.1.2?Or do I need to use Eclipse 3.x ?

Eclipse 2.1 can do it too.
Imagine you have a projet living in /whateverFolder that is not configured in Eclipse...
Open the Java Project Wizard, but select "Create project at external location"... Your project is now "linked" into Eclipse, and does not have to reside in the Eclipse workspace.
Now let's say this project in /whateverFolder had CVS tree information (CVS folders)...
Select your project, Team/Share project..., then you'll have the option to reuse existing CVS information...

And you're done
Bye
Chris

hmm.mm
However I don't understand what u say. But I feel this feature is already present with NB or SUN ONE Studio.
It has support for MS's VSS, Borlands's ST and IBM's CC.
I have worked with CC and ST and they run excellent with SOS and NB.
Check it out.

GiveMeJ
Sanjeev

It must be joke, that the CVS support of NetBeans is better than Eclipse. In Eclipse I had set up the CVS repository in a few minutes, in NetBeans I didn't manage within hours. In an enterprise you often cannot influence, how CVS is configured, and in case you use rhost or rsh connection instead of pserver (obviously the only when, which is well supported in NetBeans) the setup of the CVS support is a horror. The knowledge base articles aren't a help at all.

However, not only the configuration of CVS in eclipse was much easier, the usage is excellent. Especially the comparison of folder structues and source files is really easy and comfortable. I don't have to do obscure settings in order to get a clean copy and it worked from the beginning.

Not to take away from your gripe about rhost and rsh support, but I found using the CVS client in Netbeans over pserver to be a breeze. It was easy to set-up and use. -Frank

I'm normally an Eclipse user, but gave NetBeans a try this morning.

As far as I could see, automated refactorings, which I use every 5 minutes in Eclipse, are not (yet) in NetBeans. Is there any (free) plugin to add them?

Jalopy is there, open google and find it.
Or u can get from netbeans site too.

:)

Sanjeev

Jalopy is there, open google and find it.Or u can get from netbeans site too.:)Sanjeev

Jalopy is a pretty printing engine not a refactoring engine

okay okay ...... i agree.
Wait for NB 4. It has better refactoring support.
Lets' see what time brings.

I wrote earlier also, IDEA has far better refactoring support than NB.

Sanjeev

Eclipse 3.0 will feature a new look and a ton of new features. Why should I even consider NetBeans? NetBeans still uses Swing which is horrible at memory consumption and speed.

I saw a comment in Java Lobby that NB uses arround 100MB and Eclipse 115MB.

U tell u one thing very clearly.

This Eclipse is far slower than NetBeans. I have used NB and EC too much and found EC slower than NB. So far as exceptions are concerned, yeah I do accept that there are some errors in the code. But tunning is also there.

GiveMeJ (:-D)

Sanjeev

Is there an outline for classes available in NB without the frenzy clicking and expanding in the file/class tree (like the decent ones available in Eclipse/IDEA)?

NetBeans 3.6 has some very nice usability enhancements. For example, it used to be complicated to manage a group of open Java source files using the old tab system. Now there is a Visual Slick Edit-style drop down menu to quickly navigate to an open file. They removed the modality of the source/guid/debug/execute workflows. And the navigator and properties editors are nicely streamlined. Overall the GUI is much less cluttered. Nice job NetBeans group.

-Frank Cohen
http://www.pushtotest.com
Author of Java Testing and Design (http://thebook.pushtotest.com)