NetBeans Sprouting New Features
Java IDE gaining support from all sides
May 1, 2007 —
(Page 1 of 6)
When the first version of Xelfi found its way into the hands of Java developers, the IDE was an immediate hit. Originally designed to mimic Borland Software’s Delphi rapid application development environment, the project eventually grew to become known as NetBeans. And while Sun Microsystems may not have expected its 1999 acquisition to bloom into a worldwide development community, the company is now putting great force behind its flagship Java IDE.
With the release of NetBeans 4, the project began its transition from general-purpose IDE to open source enterprise-quality development environment. Tim Boudreau, senior staff engineer and evangelist for NetBeans, has been working on the IDE since its early days, and he marked version 4 as the turning point for the project.
He said that the changes in version 4 “made it appealing to a lot of developers who said, ‘I want my IDE to work with what I’ve got, not do anything special.’”
Dan Roberts, director of developer and Web 2.0 marketing at Sun, agreed with Boudreau. Roberts has also been on the NetBeans project since its early days, and he said that version 4.0 was the first edition that placed NetBeans on the level of its competition.
“That was where things started to go in the right direction.” said Roberts. “[Version] 4 wasn’t as good as 5, and it won’t be as good as 6, but it’s where we started getting our credibility back.”
That credibility has allowed the NetBeans team to advance its environment to become one of the preeminent development platforms for any language. With the release of version 5.0 and 5.5, NetBeans has added dozens of time-saving tools, speed-inducing profilers and the Matisse GUI building system.
The secret to all this innovation, said Roberts, is the fact that the NetBeans team is willing to analyze the ideas that it finds in other projects, and to improve upon them.
Said Roberts: “Interestingly, as NetBeans has evolved over the years, many of the features have been inspired by different tools. The visual Web pack was primarily inspired by what Microsoft was doing in its ability to rapidly build Web applications. We clearly believed they had an advantage in the Java space to build out Web applications quickly. Visual Studio has really tight integration with some of the other pieces in the system. For us, that’s the most inspiring piece.”
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