Now that the NetBeans IDE 6.0 is out, work has begun on version 6.1 (despite the roadmap showing 7.0 as the next version.) Version 6.1 is due for release by the end of April 2008 -- just in time for JavaOne. What's even better news is that the NetBeans team has released Patch 1 through the update center, and soon will release Patch 2. We no longer have to wait months or even a year to get bugs fixed. Now they are delivering bug fixes regularly while simultaneously working on the next release.

I read through the list of tickets for version 6.1 and think that this release will be as important as 6.0 because it brings many integrated features that mainstream Java developers expect in an IDE. Here is a list of highlights:

I'm a regular listener of the NetBeans podcast. At the end of every episode there is a NetBeans Puzzler question about the 6.0 IDE that usually makes you work to find the answer, while learning about a new or obscure feature. I decided to participate for the first time after listening to podcast #36. If there are multiple correct answers then a winner is randomly selected. Luckily I won :) They gave me a choice of four prizes:

1. A NetBeans T-shirt -- I have one already
2. A copy of Adam Myatt's book: "Pro NetBeans IDE 5.5" -- I feel comfortable using the IDE already
3. A 1 gigabyte USB drive -- I have a 1 GB Sun branded USB drive already
4. A copy of the Boudreau/Tulach/Wielenga book: "Rich Client Programming" -- Now this looks interesting!

I chose the RCP book and it arrived yesterday. I have to finish my Sun Certified Java Developer assignment, and read two other books before I'll have time for this one but I will definitely read it. I have been planning on creating a suite of applications based on Java EE 6 technologies in 2008 once I'm moved to Toronto. Part of the suite is a NetBeans plugin.

Since every NetBeans podcast winner seems to take a picture of themselves with their prize for the podcast blog, I have taken one too:

Before tonight I had never used Maven. I often notice articles and blog entries about Maven and have been curious. The way I understand it, Maven has created standardized ant build scripts for common tasks found in almost every kind of project. It also keeps a repository of dependencies on my hard drive sync'd with one or more remote servers. We can set up our own Maven repository at work if we wanted to. Maven makes managing dependencies and versions of dependencies simple.

The reason I didn't give it a look in the past is because I thought it was for those old fogies who still use text editors instead of IDEs. IDEs provide all of this functionality already (so I thought). Then I got thinking about how neat it would be if the buttons and menu items in my IDE mapped directly to Maven goals instead of the IDE generated ant targets. I looked into it a bit more and discovered that NetBeans 6 has Maven2 project integration. I gave it a try and was pleasantly surprised. It looks and feels like I'm working with a normal Java SE, Web, Java EE, etc. project but under the hood Maven is the build system. The project properties dialog and a few other screens are Maven specific. Very cool.

The two things I like most about this are:

1. Project portability. Now it doesn't matter if one developer wants to use Eclipse, an other NetBeans, an other IntelliJ, etc. We can all work using the same IDE independent project files.
2. It manages dependencies in a standardized way. I can check out my project from subversion to any computer and build it. I don't have to worry about my IDE specific project files that point to jar files in some folder on my computer that doesn't exist on the other computer.

I'm almost sold on Maven2. However there are still some things I need to find out. What functionality of my IDE will no longer work? Will I still be able to use the profiler? Visual web tools? Debugger? PMD/FindBugs/CheckStyle plugins inside of the IDE? I'll have to do some more research later.

Back in October 2006, I remember eagerly awaiting the final release of the NetBeans 5.5 IDE as I do today for 6.0. Only days before the final release there was an announcement about a new pack for NetBeans – Visual Web Pack. Sun Java Studio Creator was being turned into an addon pack which would enable developers to create JSF web applications visually while taking advantage of the features of NetBeans 5.5. I downloaded the technical preview and have been using it ever since.

Sun has been working very hard on the NetBeans IDE and have been doing a phenomenal job, especially in 6.0. I thought that they might appreciate some constructive feedback from someone who uses Visual Web Pack frequently. I sent a rather long email to Winston Prakash from Sun, who is one of the architects of Visual Web Pack. He was pleased to read my feedback and had a lot of interesting things to say in response.

Lately I have read a lot of IDE discussions about IntelliJ IDEA. I've only ever heard good things about it and was curious how it compares to NetBeans 6.0, which is nearing beta. The main plus points that I hear over and over about IDEA are its code editor, refactoring capabilities, and performance. Everyone knows that IDEA is way ahead of other IDEs in refactoring so I didn't look at it. Instead, I compared features that I personally find useful in NetBeans, and also some areas of NetBeans that could use improvement. I downloaded IntelliJ IDEA 7.0 milestone 1 (a dev build) and NetBeans 6.0 milestone 10. I'm running these on Ubuntu Linux 7.04 with JDK 1.6.0. This was the first time I have ever tried IDEA.