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 Vincent Brabant's BlogTools ArchivesReaction about the Charles Ditzel InterviewPosted by vbrabant on October 14, 2006 at 02:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)Sun Developer Network published an interessting interview of Charles Ditzel. But I wanted to react on some part. We also occasionally hear that the layout manager, GroupLayout, which the NetBeans IDE GUI Builder uses to create its great user interfaces (UIs), causes some sort of lock-in or is proprietary. It's in JDK 6 and included as a library for use in JDK 5.0 and 1.4. As you can see, it's neither a lock-in nor proprietary. He is right by saying that you have no lock-in nor proprietary. But at run-time only. Because at development time, you are locked with NetBeans, and his famous .form file. When that will be fixed. When the GUI editor of NetBeans will be able to edit any java source file WITHOUT needs of a proprietary .form file, then, only then, you could say that there is no lock-in. Why do we need more that one source directory for one project ?Posted by vbrabant on April 22, 2004 at 01:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (36)Dear all, Did you remember one of my blog concerning the usage of Ant to manage project ? It seems that Netbeans people read my blog and will use Ant-Driven Project in next release of NetBeans. I really think it will be a plus. But the really good new is that they success to hide the fact that their new notion of project is managed by Ant script. You really can ignore the fact. But, comparing to old way of work, they introduced somes limitations. For example, Imagine the following structure
When I am running on my PC the MyClass.java, I am using the src and resources/dev as source directories. Everything that are in the sources directories will be in the jar file. Also, I like to keep somes classes in a totally separate directory, because they are special classes,
Also, when I have to write somes tests for my web project, I like to have a directory containing HTTPUnit tests and another directory for JUNIT tests. Both are tests for the same project, but having not the same purpose But now, they decided to add the following constraints one source directory for one project. (if we ignore the fact that your tests are in a separate directory). But, personally, I liked to have more than one source directory in the same project. I really don't want to create a project, only for somes classes. The problem is that I have no solid arguments to really have more than one source directory in the same project. That's the reason I need your help. If you are using more than one source directory in your project, could you post here the reason why. If you are never using more than one source directory in your project, could you also teach me how to change my way of building a project ?
Brabant Vincent
NetBeans at FOSDEMPosted by vbrabant on March 01, 2004 at 07:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)The 21 and 22 February, in brussel, belgium, were organized the fourth session of FOSDEM. Ian Formanek, of NetBeans, had two sessions planned for FOSDEM 2004. During his talk, Ian did a presentation of new features integrated into NetBeans IDE 3.6 Beta but also, and that was a sneak preview, features integrated into NetBeans IDE 4.0. Especially the Ant Based Project Management System. Normally, I would be there, but it was finally not possible for me to be present. So, if you were in the audience, can you give me your comments, and say me what you think about NB4.0 and the Ant Based Project Management System. Thanks a lot. Brabant Vincent Will the future release 3.6 permit to NetBeans to stay in the race or is it too late ?Posted by vbrabant on December 12, 2003 at 02:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (14)NetBeans team announced some weeks ago the near future of NetBeans. Already last month it was possible to test the new window systems integrated in the trunk release.
Very nice result. You can
A lot of nice and very useful enhancements have been done. But I would like to know if it's too late for netBeans or not. I can affirm that it existed before Eclipse and that it exists after Eclipse. Now, the competition is harder than before. Users can choose between good, open source IDEs, even pay a little to have IDE like IDEALJ. NetBeans must reply to attacks from Eclipse to survive. Recently, announcement was done that NetBeans is delivered with a new window system. And I think personally, that it's a success. NetBeans seems now to be faster than before, not as ugly than before, even with the Metal Look & Feel. But I had a question in my head: Is it too late ? I think that no. It's not too late. NetBeans is really a good product and has nice features that others don't yet have. Just some details that make the difference. That's why we continue to use it. The major problem, is that you need to know keyboard shortcuts to use those functions. Some very nice functions are only available via keyboard shortcuts, but never by mouse or in the menus. How many people, when using a graphical IDE, are reading the keyboard shortcuts help section to know the features integrated in a product ? Not so many. And that's why NetBeans can be seen as a poor IDE. But, if you take time to learn it, you will discover all advantages of thoses features. The big problem with NetBeans is the noise. Nobody speak about NetBeans. But everyone talks about Eclipse. At Javapolis, there were stands of Sun, Novell, Compuware, Bea, TeamStudio, hp. Sun was promoting the Java Desktop, Novell was promoting the exteNd Compuware was promoting their MDA Driven IDE, OptimalJ. Bea was promoting weblogic, TeamStudio was promoting his Java suite But, do you know that all those companies develop products on top of the NetBeans platform or modules for NetBeans, and I am pretty sure that few of you knew it.
And a lot of other companies are using netbeans modules, like the MDR module, used by a UML tool And not one of those four companies, even Sun, at their stand, did even a little advertizing for NetBeans. Totally Incredible. But do you know how exactly powerful is NetBeans ? just look at the photoalbum demo to discover it then. Also don't forget that behind the name NetBeans, you have two products: the platform and the IDE.
So when I see the pre-alpha release of NetBeans 3.6, and when I see the features that NB4.0 will have. I am confident that NetBeans is always in the race to be one of the best Java IDEs, if not the best one. So, please, take time to look at the future NB3.6 release. Look at the new features. Try it by yourself !!!
I saw the new Java Studio Creator in action (codename: Rave) at BEJUGPosted by vbrabant on December 04, 2003 at 04:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)Today, like yesterday, I had the possibility to follow somes conference at Javapolis, organized by the Belgian Java User Group BEJUG. I missed the one concerning OptimalJ (based upon netBeans) of Compuware, because it was at the same moment of the conference concerning JSF, presented by Craig R. McClanahan. But At the end of this afternoon, I followed the conference given by Robert Brewin, the Architecht for the Corporate Developer tools organization, at Sun, concerning the project Rave. Robert begins by explaining that people needed a visual tool, where you can build your application visually, but where you can also modify the source code freely, if you want. He explained that people want to be able to develop application that are not vendor dependent, but that are based upon (future) java standards, like JSP, JSF, ROWSETS, ... and can be deployed easily on any server. He introduced the planning of Rave, by saying that Rave 1.0 would permits visual development of JSP/JSF applications. He also said that Rave 2.0 will permits visual development of rich (Swing) client applications. He demonstrates how to visually build a little web application having two JSP pages, with somes elements therein (a listbox and a table on the first page, a table on the second page). It was amazing: You drop a JSF Table element in the JSP page. Then you drop the table of your database in that JSF Table element and it customize automaticaly the rows with data format of your database table. Then, you can click on the table, and construct visually your select, (like within MS ACCESS) and saying which column must be displayed. The table displayed in your JSP is then updated to display only selected column. You have also the possibility to build visually the workflow of your application. You see then little representation of your jsp page with clickable elements. When I click on the button, I can then link it to an empty place, outside of the jsp page, and automatically, it created a second JPS page and then he could give a name to the link, ... p>You have the notion of palettes, where you can pick amongs JSF composants, ... Also amongs little piece of code, contained in the palette of clips. Just Drag and drop from youe editor to add the selected code into clips paletter, to be able to copy it later in another editor. It was running like a charme. You really had no impression that it was an heavy application, at any moment Somes people in the audience really enjoyed this demo. And I was happy to constat it because I knowed that it was builded upon the netbeans platform. But (there is always a BUT), I was also very surprised with the followings :
The two first constatations lets me perplex, because, if you read newsgroup of NetBeans, you really have impression that it has been developped from scratch by netBeans developpers, and never I read that it was Rave code given back to the netBeans community. At the end of the presentation, we had possibilities to ask questions: someone starter by asking if Rave was based upon Eclipse or NetBeans. And when Robert said that it was builded upon NetBeans, it was really like he was a liar. Nobody trusted him. That application, that seems so nice, so beautifull, so well-responding can't be based upon the ugly, and slowly appication that is NetBeans. That is impossible. It shows that Sun AND the netBeans community must do effort to fight against the problem of allergy that java developers encounter when they ear about NetBeans. Another guy also aked him then, if it was a swing application. And when Robert said that yes, a new astonishment occurs in the audience. Can a Swing application be nice ? It really seems that everyone in the audience was disappointed that it was not based upon eclipse. During the demo, the excitation of audience was growing, and it dropped rapidly when Robert said that it bas based upon NetBeans. Then someone asked for the price. After a (long) moment of hesitation, Robert speaked about the price of MS Products and finally said that price of Rave would be lower than 400$,. After the presentation, I had the occasion to speak with him. And I asked if the netBeans Community will have back developments done in the rave application. He said that every enhancements/modifications of the netbeans IDE code will be given back to the netbeans community, because they are obliged to do that to respect the Sun Public Licence. But ONLY enhancements, NOT new features, like the visual jsp editor. By saying that they were obliged to give it back to the netbeans community, Robert seems very annoyed like if he prefered that Rave product stay a closed source product. I also asked if Rave 2.0 will use the form editor of netbeans, but he said no. The Form editor is too limited for what they want to do for Rave 2.0. Will Rave 2.0 have a two way editor ? Will it be given back to the netbeans community ?We have to wait until next year to know what it will happens.
My Conclusion Rave (Sun Java Studio Creator) seems to be a very good product. I can only congratulates Rave Developers team (it seems it's not the same as the netbeans one) for the nice product they produce. But a demo is always just a demo. So wait and see. But, now the java product line of Sun is really not clear. Sun handle three products based upon the netbeans plaform :
I want an IDE that manage his projects by using Ant !Posted by vbrabant on November 22, 2003 at 09:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)Ant is today the de facto standard to compile, test, deploy your application. But, you are not developping with Ant, you are developping with an IDE And when you write your project in the IDE, you can compile it, test it, debug it, deploy it. And then, you want to put in place the daily build. And therefore you have to build your ant build.xml file from scratch. Even if your IDE is already configured to compile, build jar, war, zip, docs, test reports, ... Why are IDEs not using Ant to build the project ? Then, you will have possibility to reuse what the IDE has automatically done for you. Why not, have IDE where you can import an existing Ant project ? That IDE would be able to create his internal structure of the project from the Ant Build.XML file. I know that today, with NetBeans 3.5, you can compile your class by calling an Ant target. You can run your class by calling a Ant target. Why is it very interresting ? You are sure that the way your IDE is compiling, executing, testing your project on your local PC, is exactly the same way as the nightly build that run on the server. But it's not yet sufficient. Did you remember my preceding blog concerning freedom of codestyle? Imagine now that when you use the action Commit in your IDE, it launch the target commit of your Ant file. You can customize that target to
It means that you are sure that the code you commited in the repository is well-formated, has up to date javadoc, is following your standards, ... It can only enhance the quality of code commited in the CVS repository. That would be a nice enhancement, because, today, no versionning tools permits you to refuse commit depending of somes criteria. By having all IDE using Ant build.xml file, you will be able to work in a team where everyone can choose his IDE. You will assure that commited code is compliant with your rules. I am happy to learn that NetBeans 3.6 will enhance integration with Ant.
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