The NetBeans IDE Field Guide was published last year right after version 4.1 of the NetBeans IDE was released. Version 5.0 of the IDE has been out for almost three months now and an updated version of the Field Guide will be available soon. In fact, you can already pre-order the NetBeans IDE Field Guide, 2nd Edition on amazon.com or BookPool.

And what exactly will you get when you buy the 2nd edition? In a nutshell: lots of new and updated content. The original five authors went through each chapter from the first edition; some needed only minor dusting and cleaning, others were enhanced considerably. For example, lead author Patrick Keegan added quite a bit of material to the chapter on Editing because there were quite a few enhancments added to the IDE's editor in version 5.0.

In addition to that, there are some brand new chapters. Chris Webster wrote one on the web application framework support that is new in version 5.0. And content from some contributoring authors who are new to the 2nd edition is also included. Martin Ryzl and Jiri Prazak added quite a bit to the chapter on J2ME (mobility applications). John Jullion-Ceccarelli wrote chapters on using the GUI editor (Project Matisse) and on the new CVS support. Geertjan took the lead on writing a chapter on the IDE's new tools for developing plug-in modules. And I wrote a chapter on using the NetBeans Profiler.

The complete table of contents is:

• Chapter 1 Download, Installation, and First Project
• Chapter 2 NetBeans IDE Fundamentals
• Chapter 3 IDE Project Fundamentals
• Chapter 4 Versioning your Projects^New!
• Chapter 5 Editing and Refactoring Code
• Chapter 6 Building Java Graphical User Interfaces^New!
• Chapter 7 Debugging Java Applications
• Chapter 8 Developing Web Applications
• Chapter 9 Creating Web Applications on the JSF and Struts Frameworks^New!
• Chapter 10 Introduction to Java EE Development in NetBeans IDE
• Chapter 11 Extending Web Applications with Business Logic: Introducing Enterprise Beans
• Chapter 12 Extending Java EE Applications with Web Services
• Chapter 13 Developing Full-Scale Java EE Applications
• Chapter 14 Developing J2ME Mobility Applications
• Chapter 15 Profiling Java Applications^New!
• Chapter 16 Integrating Existing Ant Scripts with the IDE
• Chapter 17 Developing NetBeans Plug-in Modules^New!
• Chapter 18 Using NetBeans Developer Collaboration Tools^New!
• Appendix A Importing an Eclipse Project into NetBeans IDE
• Appendix B Importing a JBuilder Project into NetBeans IDE^New!

So there's some worthwhile stuff in the 2nd edition. Would you like a free copy? If you live in northern California or are planning to attend JavaOne, then come to NetBeans Day San Francisco. The first four hundred people through the door will get a free copy of the NetBeans IDE Field Guide, 2nd Edition. Seats are limited, so register now. The event is free and you do not have to be registered for JavaOne in order to attend.

Oh, and in case you were wondering what all those leaves and things are that are super-imposed on top of the NetBeans cube that is on the cover of the book... those are works of art by the great painter Henri Matisse. :-)