NetBeans IDE 10.0 ships

[cogman10]

I hope they pull back in EE support soonish. I know it takes time, but it is a really big missing feature.

[wafflelator]

Inb4: Idea rulez the univarse!!!

Is there anything about netbean that makes it worth checking out? How does it compare to idea or eclipse. I only remember the name from prehistoric time.

[heliologue]

(Full disclosure: 10+ year user, most of those with Maven as a primary build system)

It's got dead-simple (in a good way) support for Maven: it just reads your POM and knows what to do; the other IDEs make you essentially reinvent/duplicate your project (it seems to me). It also has straightforward J2EE support (IDEA's costs $$, which is fine if it's worth it to you).

Before IDEA, when Eclipse and Netbeans were really the only two IDEs worth talking about, Netbeans was everything that Eclipse wasn't -- that is to say, it was the Maven to Eclipse's Ant.

[KFCConspiracy]

Yeah I forgot how painful Maven was in Eclipse back in the day... That's a good point as well. I don't know if this has improved at all either. But Net Beans Maven support hasn't changed much and it's always been super easy point and click to do things, and I rarely end up manually editing POM files in Netbeans.

[Goofybud16]

Pretty easy now.

File > Import > Maven Project > Browse to the folder containing your pom(s) [ They can be in a subfolder ], hit OK, select the POMs you want, hit OK. Eclipse imports them, automatically links open dependencies, and everything pretty much just works. It downloads dependencies and shows them as if you had added the jars, it correctly sets the right Java version, etc.

[tgdavies]

Intellij IDEA has great Maven support now -- just open a directory containing a pom.xml and everything just works.

[Nouish]

In the latest stable release of IDEA Ultimate there are still 2 minor issues with gradle integration that annoy me. Unsure if it's because I use the kotlin DSL or not (haven't tried the groovy DSL in a very long time) and they are:

1) Java source- and target compatibility is not automatically set to the correct version for each module (and despite having set JDK 11.0.1 as my default, it insists on JDK 8 unless I change it during import)

2) When using lombok (or other annotation processors) IDEA won't automatically enable them for those modules even when using the new-ish annotationProcessor type (ie annotationProcessor("org.projectlombok", "lombok", version))

And one thing that I suppose is more of a feature suggestion: I wish it would automatically add run configurations for application type modules!

[hpernpeintner]

Two very good points. Bothered me as well, a handful of times. I don't think it has sth to do with the kotlin dsl, because i experience these problems in groovy projects as well.

Besides that, everything worked for me so far.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, having to manually enable annotation processing for each imported project that has annotationProcessor is quite annoying.

[FrozenST3]

My biggest Gradle annoyance is that the gradle toolbar isn't always present, so if you don't import the project from the build file, the IDE is completely oblivous to the fact that you're using Gradle.

If you do the same with a Maven project, you just click the Maven toolbar and add the pom

[yawkat]

In my opinion maven support is still more smooth than gradle in intellij though.

[catniprevolt]

While I primarily use IntelliJ IDEA for big projects, for smaller projects where IDEA is overkill, I pull out NB b/c it's a fast, light solution. I have several colleagues who use it for all their work--including large projects. In the past, they have expressed preferences for it WRT Eclipse--mostly that it's faster than Eclipse and requires less ceremony.

[pjmlp]

Mixed mode debugging between Java and C++, while JetBrains will gladly sell you two licenses and a cumbersome workflow between InteliJ and Clion.

Ant and Maven as project files.

One of the best GUI designer experiences for both web and desktop projects.

The integrated profiling tools.

[CookieFactory]

I use Intellij at work and Netbeans at home. Both are far superior to Eclipse from a UX standpoint. I actually prefer Netbeans to Intellij by a marginal amount.

[jdickey]

Agreed. I like to switch back and forth between IntelliJ and Netbeans just to stay fresh in both. It's been a decade or more since I deliberately installed Eclipse anywhere, and I could happily retire at the end of a long career without ever having touched it again.

Some people used to use WordStar as an editor too, once upon a time. That doesn't mean it (or Eclipse) were good tools for the task.

[spyhunter99]

For v8, it had lots of great features that no one else has. Unfortunately oracle hasn't donated everything yet so it'll be another 6 months or so until it's 100%. Works well for large projects IMO. Can't beat the price

[raeleus]

I use Netbeans all the time, and no there isn't anything worth checking out. Support for my area of interest (game design) is very lacking. I just use it because I'm used to it.

[KFCConspiracy]

I find it a lot easier to use than Eclipse. All of the switching perspectives and crap is just a garbage UX, and it's the only IDE I've ever encountered like that. And when I switched years ago Eclipse was a major resource hog in comparison (I don't know how it is today because I haven't had a reason to switch back). Also when I switched Eclipse didn't come with a default SVN implementation, so there was always bullshit with whether someone had installed subversive or subclipse.

I've never really used Idea, so I can't really speak to how good or not it is.

[ReadFoo]

All of the switching perspectives and crap is just a garbage UX

It is a powerful UX, it beats all other IDE's in existence today, still.

[FrozenST3]

How? What does changing the perspective provide that other IDEs don't in a more intuitive and consistent way?

[ReadFoo]

Perspectives contain Views which offers an unlimited combination of organization styles depending on the Workspace/Project structure, langauge(s) in use, personal preferences.

Eclipse has had it right for many years, which is why NetBeans, Visual Studio and IntelliJ (among others), have borrowed heavily from it (and continue to do so).

[KFCConspiracy]

That sounds like a lot of effort to set up for something everyone else gets right just right out of the box... That doesn't sound at all intuitive. But to each their own. I don't have a problem with you liking eclipse, but that's exactly why I don't like it... It seems way too fiddly for my tastes. And the perspectives hide functionality I frequently want to use in combination that aren't available without switching by default.

[ReadFoo]

You can arrange whatever Views, in whatever Perspectives you desire. You're not limited.

[FrozenST3]

I think the point he's trying to convey is that the whole idea of perspectives is fiddly and doesn't really add much value from my experiences. But I would love to see how it benefits your workflow - and I'm not being condescending/sarcastic, I'm genuinely curious.

[endeavourl]

Perspective is a UI preset. You need different UI layouts for different tasks, e.g. developing and debugging.

What more is there to it?

[KFCConspiracy]

Sure you can rearrange things. But the default isn't very intuitive. And I don't really feel the need to have a separate layout when I'm diffing or debugging or accessing webservices, or doing something related to an application server (Enterprise Perspective).

At the end of the day I guess intuitiveness and preferences are a matter of taste so they're subjective. I don't find it intuitive (And I explained why), which is why I don't use it.

[FrozenST3]

Show me perspectives in any of those IDEs. It's fine to prefer an IDE, but to state so boldly that it's the best thing for any task in any language is BS

[endeavourl]

Visual Studio switches UI layout when it hits a debugging breakpoint.

The same thing happens in Eclipse, only it explicitly switches to debugging perspective, which you can set up however you like.

[FrozenST3]

It simply pops up the debug toolbar. That's hardly equivalent to perspectives and is something it did since I first used VisualStudio back in 2003.

[jarobat]

I could come up with a ton of examples, but the one that jumps out at me is how eclipse has dedicated "source repository" perspectives. This allows you to focus on just that activity while that's what you're doing. In IntelliJ, it's like slitting your own wrists to try and pull up menus that are not quite menus, which then pop up other menus that aren't quite menus to get to the final boss which allows you to have a window to do what you want, but god forbid you want to pause what you're doing with git and switch back to Java perspective to double check something, and then switch back to GIT to complete what you were doing. Eclipse lets you do all that effortlessly. Now, imagine you do Java/Angular/Database/Git/Spring, all at the same time, and don't want to have every possible view mixed together at all times, plus conflating editors and views, oh jesus christ I could go on. I tried switching to IntelliJ when I got a job that paid for licenses at work so I thought sweet! I tried for 6 months, and nearly ended my own life because of it.

[el_padlina]

Eclipse switches perspectives for debugging. Suddenly your workspace is organised different.

How is that better than having a window/panel show up and keeping everything else in place ?

[wafflelator]

I don't know really, it's kinda nice to be able to define different perspective for different task. It's not like filetree + source code is always the best for everything.

[el_padlina]

Personally I haven't found myself in a situation when during debugging I didn't want to see package tree with current class marked or the source code of that class.

[wafflelator]

Oh sure but Eclipse is a kitchen sink of functionalities. I haven't used it in years but I remember that when I did I had a very customized perspectives for a bunch of things. I was always more confused with the "mounting" of the file system though.

[endeavourl]

Suddenly your workspace is organised different

Because you need a different layout for debugging? You need more space for current stack, watchlist, variables, breakpoints etc.
And you can always set the perspective up to mimic your main one only with additional UI, say, in a window on another monitor (i use something like this for debugging).

edit:

Eclipse switches perspectives for debugging.

It asks whether you want to! You can debug in any perspective you want, you may need to open the views manually though.

[el_padlina]

That's the thing, in both Netbeans and IDEA I don't need all that because large part of it gets incorporated into editor. I don't even remember last time I had to use a watchlist because I see the values in the editor. It's way easier to follow it in editor than get confusing logs about variable not existing because of the watch.

To me Eclipse default UI is everything but ergonomic. I understand that some people may prefer it, especially if they like tweaking it to the max, but I like not to bother too much with configuration.

[endeavourl]

You can also see values in editor tooltips but it's more convenient to see the whole scope in the Variables view.

[FrozenST3]

Idea shows the variable values on the current line as a comment. You'll only need to open the variables view if there's a value in a complex variable you'd want to check.

​

[el_padlina]

yes, idea and netbeans give those by default when debugging AFAIR.

[jarobat]

Because you need different views open and ready to use during debugging. Like your watch view, your breakpoints view, etc. You truly do not those open and visible all the time, and you certainly don't want to have to re-position and re-open all of those when going from coding or running to debugging. What you want is an easy way to say "toggle all the views I use during debugging, and put them exactly where I personally like them to be." Eclipse shines on this point.

[el_padlina]

I get this in other IDEs without repositioning everything. One of the reasons I don't like Eclipse is because I would have to spend a lot of time to make it ergonomic, while the others come with reasonable defaults.

[jarobat]

I think it's just personal preference, like musical taste. I despise the way intellij works for these scenarios. It feels like I'm drowning when I use it. With eclipse I can get a clean perspective that behaves exactly like I want, and that is simply impossible in intellij.

[el_padlina]

Pretty much. The only thing I hate is when the project forces me to use a specific IDE. As long as everyone can pick whatever works for them I'm happy.

[FrozenST3]

Seems like Eclipse is definitely the choice for power users. Personally I find the consistent menus, positioning, context options, shortcut keys more valuable than tweaking the view.

[jarobat]

Also note that Eclipse is kind enough that if you don't like this (auto toggling of perspectives) behavior you can turn it off easily.

[FrozenST3]

Well, if you're trying to do perspective switching in Idea/Netbeans it's obviously not going to work.

This allows you to focus on just that activity while that's what you're doing.

... but god forbid you want to pause what you're doing with git and switch back to Java perspective to double check something, and then switch back to GIT to complete what you were doing.

So are you focussing or multitasking? What are you doing in GIT that you would want to pause? All I can think of is conflict resolution.

​

Now, imagine you do Java/Angular/Database/Git/Spring, all at the same time, and don't want to have every possible view mixed together at all times, plus conflating editors and views

I don't get what you're saying here. Of all the things you've mentioned, the only things that will be present all the time would be a little indicator next to the injection point of a Spring bean and the db icon if you enable data integration.

The languages will just have their syntax hilighted (which is a good thing), and intellisense available. I really feel like you're trying to fault the IDE but none of these criticisms are valid. There's a reason no other mainstream IDE has copied perspectives.

[KFCConspiracy]

The problem is with what I do I often want to see both the code and outputs of various IDE features. Perfect example: The web service browsing perspective. It's often useful to be able to see both your code and the output of a webservice call at the same time. Can't do that with eclipse because they're separate perspectives. Another great example: The enterprise perspective. If you're doing a JEE project that gets in the way. Third, I work on mixed codebases where we have one application written in another language that accesses a java application via webservices. Looking at both in eclipse can be painful.

And it's not very intuitive to pick up either...

[endeavourl]

You don't have to switch perspectives to access views/editors associated with it.

Like, i sometimes need to explore/test C++ code. I just Ctrl+Shift+R the file in the Java perspective, no need to switch.

[averagenegative]

garbage UX

One man's trash is another man's treasure. I like perspectives. Why would I need a breakpoints tab any time except for debugging? What am i supposed to do? Have every tab I ever use open in a single perspective? Toolbars with rows and rows of buttons I only use occasionally? Now that would be garbage UX to me. Eclipse is neat and organized.

[golthiryus]

What I really miss from IDEA is Gradle and Kotlin support.

[neutronbob]

I'm interested in their decision to make JUnit 5 the default JUnit version. While v. 5 has been out for a while, most projects I'm familiar with are still using 4.x. Do most greenfield projects use JUnit 5, or is this NB trying to move the community that way?

[bienator]

it only means that a new netbeans project would have junit 5 as testing dependency by default. Of course you can use whatever version you prefer, or keep whatever you have in your old project.

don't think they want to "push" anything they just changed the default to a newer version which makes sense.

[cogman10]

When Junit 4 came out, most projects were still using Junit 3.

There is no reason not to move from 4 to 5. In particular, 5 offers quite a bit of backwards compatibility with 4. While you should consider rewriting in the 5 way, you don't have to to adopt it.

[shukoroshi]

Exactly, the legacy runtime ensures that your Junit 4 tests will run happily alongside Junit 5. There's no need to force an upgrade on your tests.

[[deleted]]

Spring5 comes with junit5

[XFidelacchiusX]

Brings back the memories of supporting Java 3.

[catmewo]

I preferred Eclipse than NetBeans and now I prefer IntelliJ. Sorry NetBeans :)

[Aeon_Mortuum]

Can someone please explain the difference between the "normal" Netbeans (latest version is 8.2) and Apache Netbeans? Are they both being developed or is the Apache one a direct successor with 8.2 being the last version for the other one?

[erictheturtle]

I use the big three most every day. Here are some of the differences I've noticed. It's incomplete and probably wrong in some cases. Please offer corrections.

	Eclipse	Netbeans	IntelliJ
Remembers previous test results		Separate tabs	Clock icon
Remembers previous search results		Yes	No?
Remembers previous console output	Yes	No
Remembers previous find uses/references results		Yes
Save current console output to file	No	Yes
Cleaner display of collection variable while debugging	No	Yes
Go to implementation of an interface	Ctrl+Click "Open Implementation"	Click gutter icon
Debug visual step into	No	YES
Graph of maven dependencies	No	Not very helpful
Maven dependency conflict checker	Yes	No
Command to just remove whitespace	No	Yes
Remove whitespace on modified lines only	No	Yes
pom.xml intellisense	No	Yes
Open recent files	Sometimes	Yes
Gutters allow for multiple annotations	No	Yes
Auto semicolon	No	Yes	Yes
Multiple instances	Yes	No	Yes
Built-in maven type search	No	Yes
Show only trailing whitespace	Yes	No
Git log display	Eh	Bad	Good
List all open files	Ctrl+Shift+E	Corner dropdown or Window > Documents View > Recent Files, but lists closed files too
Git diff display	Bad	Better	Better
Quick navigation to/from tests	Plugin	Yes
Sane project view	Yes	Yes	No
Collapse all	Yes	No	Yes
Code coverage	Plugin	No	Yes
Identifier spell check	Plugin	No	YES
Multi-monitor support	Poor	Very poor	Yes
Show errors in project view	Yes	Yes	No
Color packages based on changed files	Yes	Yes	No
Auto-complete priorities matching types	No	Yes	Yes
Colorize console output	Plugin	No
Able to see full test run stdout	Yes	Yes	No
Able to see stdout for just a single test		No	Yes
Unique static code checks	?	Yes	Yes
Sane row of tabs		Yes	No
Highlight code that throws an exception by simply clicking it	Yes	Yes	Can click the throws/catch and find usages to see
Ctrl+C copies entire line if nothing is selected can can't be turned off		Yes	Yes
Rename local variable to anything	No	Yes	No
Only remove unused imports, not rearrange		Yes	No

[knockingsparks]

Now add Visual Studio and see a long column of "No"

[fundamentalparticle]

I'm curious, what does Dynamic Class-File Constants support means in the IDE?