Bistro!: NetBeans best kept secret

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jeudi janvier 20, 2005

NetBeans best kept secret
NetBeans best kept secret has to be its Platform - the NetBeans Platform is the engine behind the NetBeans IDE.

If you're writing client-side business applications (and not just IDEs!), you need not reinvent the basic user interface (windows, menus, toolbars), settings and configuration management, modular architecture with dependencies, storage management, etc... The Netbeans Platform does it all for you in a Java cross-platform way.

Here's and example usage: http://www.cs.wustl.edu/~rbu1/feedreader/* (nice use of JDIC btw).
At a different scale, Nokia has used it for its services management platform. See http://www.netbeans.org/community/articles/nokia-netact.html and the corresponding JavaOne'04 presentation.

Update: I forgot to mention another interesting use of the NetBeans platform: MC4J, a JMX application management console. Version 1.2 beta 8 was just released. It now supports Sun's Java Application Server 8.x.
*Update: relocated here.
( janv. 20 2005, 03:39:20 PM CET ) Permalink Comments [6]

Comments:

Hello Alexis, Even if this is on the dark side, to be totally fair you should have mentioned Eclipse Rich Client Platform and Spring Rich Client Project. I agree with you on the interest of such client framework and the growing number of open-source competitors is the best evidence.

Posted by Freddy Mallet on janvier 23, 2005 at 06:14 PM CET #

Hi Freddy,

Well I really wasn't trying to compare different solutions...

Since RCP came up... to me it could be interesting if it wasn't for SWT. SWT and RCP are Eclipse side effects and the Netbeans Platform is more mature than RCP, IMO.

The other problem I see is the lack of openess in Eclipse - I mean there's a big community of users and plugins, but that doesn't make Eclipse a truly open community and if Eclipse is last for full Tiger support, it's probably because IBM, not the community, decided it wasn't important to have. So my point here is that it's even harder to get an Open RCP community to get this technology started.

I don't know about Spring. Haven't looked at it. Any good intro?

BTW, how big is the RCP runtime?

Anyhow, 2005 will be the year of the desktop that's pretty obvious.

-Alexis

PS: is it snowing yet in your side of the country?

Posted by Alexis MP on janvier 23, 2005 at 07:54 PM CET #

Hello! I'm Noniko. Thank you for your advice for my trouble in NetBeans on Solaris 10. I posted details about it in my today's entry. I wish you would interested in it. http://www.jroller.com/page/Noniko/20050209#my_netbeans_problem_on_sol10 When I have more news, I would like to let you know.

Posted by Noniko on février 09, 2005 at 04:03 PM CET #

Hello, it's Noniko again. It was really a matter of locale, it worked in US-English environment and by installing US-English together with Japanese utf-8, it also worked in Japanese Environment. Thank you for your advice. I was really encouraged that Sun people is on my side.

Posted by Noniko on février 10, 2005 at 03:26 PM CET #

Alex, I'm kind of baffled at your two statements "the NetBeans platform is more mature than the RCP" and "Eclipse is not open". If you're going to make such (outrageous IMO) claims while defending a tool that has a minuscule market share compared to its competitors, the least you can is back them up with some data. Come on, now...

Posted by Cedric on février 11, 2005 at 06:26 PM CET #

Cédric,
"More mature" is for things like runtime size, module dependencies, node API, etc... but I guess I can agree to mature being a subjective term.
"not open" is explained above and relates to the way the platform is being developed (not the plugins).
As for miniscule market share, I haven't seen any numbers for NetBeans or Eclipse (or others) when it comes to a rich client framework. I mention a few example usages of the technology above and I know of several demanding customers using it extensively (X men-years development and business critical).
Can you provide some marketshare numbers? My marketing department is interested ;-)

Posted by Alexis MP on février 11, 2005 at 06:44 PM CET #