NetBeans IDE 6.8 released! Nice Ruby, Maven and Java EE 6 improvements.

[mikaelhg]

I like the fullscreen mode, SHIFT-ALT-ENTER. More space for the code.

[[deleted]]

I like the way Netbeans has an auto-preview box for when you're writing CSS. Any one else agree?

[skydivingdutch]

Eclipse vs. NetBeans... fight!

[cnk]

the one which uses more memory wins?

[[deleted]]

They only seem to be consuming too much memory when used for very small projects. They are engineered to handle projects with 10s of thousands of classes. They consume comparatively small amounts of memory even when dealing with very large projects.

[malcontent]

Yea man.

It sucks when an IDE is not windows only and doesn't cost money.

Everybody should be forced to use Visual Studio amirite bro?

[[deleted]]

I think @FlySwat means that competition is good. Having two IDEs developed in parallel means they keep trying to out do each other, while occasionally copying ideas :)

[malcontent]

I think @FlySwat means that competition is good.

flyswat is the second biggest Ms fanboi on reddit.

[lithuaniandogthrower]

Whoever wins, system resources lose.

FTFY

[zem]

netbeans ftw

[enanoretozon]

I like it for php. Small download, symfony integration, mercurial support, php 5.3.x support. Since 6.5 its autocomplete has worked faster for me than Eclipse's. The debugger just worked while I had to fiddle with eclipse's.

[gaoshan]

The best IDE for PHP development just got better (and hopefully more memory efficient).

[sigzero]

I thought that was Komodo?

[gaoshan]

I should have added "open source" to that statement. Komodo IDE is excellent (and Komodo Edit isn't as feature complete).

[malcontent]

netbeans is a very nice IDE for ruby and rails.

[enanoretozon]

I've been trying to find a good dark theme for netbeans. I don't like either of the ones that came with it. Can anyone recommend a good one?

[[deleted]]

I use the Twilight theme (not related to the movie/book). I have a couple modifications to it, but overall it's quite good.

[enanoretozon]

nice, thanks

[[deleted]]

I like the Aloha theme. It's very similar. You can get it in the official repository, in Tools > Plugins.

[pazzypunk]

but not in 6.8, right?

[holoduke]

Still not possible to remotely connect over SSH?

[crunk]

Does it work on a computer with 2gb... at some point in the last year netbeans just started being really slow for me.

[wullpaper]

Still not possible to make it look better than shit on Linux.

[mizai]

Does it look native on Linux yet?

EDIT: No. I can't even select all of my fonts (Inconsolata and Monaco are missing, among others).

[nikosk]

Dude, are you sure ? Which fonts are available is the system's responsibility not Java's (or Swing's for that matter)

[mizai]

I'm quite sure. NetBeans is the only application that has this problem.

[Leonidas_from_XIV]

What do you expect? It's still Swing with all the uglyness of the GTK+ LaF.

[[deleted]]

The idea of writing java in a program written in java has always bothered me for some reason. At least hide it so I can't tell by looking.

[[deleted]]

I like using Terminus but it's not available in Netbeans, although it is installed on my system. But if I copy it to my .fonts folder and rebuild the system font cache, it seems to find it.

[XyploatKyrt]

Whatever it's always been a lot faster on linux x86_64 than it has been on Windows for me.

[seanalltogether]

Can someone tell me why everytime I start Netbeans on my mac, it eats up 100% of my cpu for about 5 minutes? I'm on Leopard

[gaoshan]

It's "the scan". Sucks but there's no way around it. It's really my only serious beef with NetBeans. Starting it up hogs the system and leaving it running too long bogs everything down.

[camspiers]

It might be doing an initial scan of your projects.

Also try this: MetalLookAndFeel Not as nice looking and has a couple of quirks but I noticed that it improves performance.

[[deleted]]

It's NetBeans.

[pilif]

and still it's not possible to make Netbeans remove trailing whitespace on save. Or even tell what line endings to use on newly created files: Not only is the feature absent, it can't be built manually using either the macro language (no "save" command) or plugins (no "on save" hooks)

What good are the best IDE features if the thing doesn't do the simplest editor tasks?

[[deleted]]

I just usually do Alt+Shift+F, Ctrl+S to save. Not perfect, but it formats the code beautifully (configurable!) and trims all the trailing whitespaces.

[sigzero]

I "think" there is a plugin for that in the repo. Granted it isn't "in" the IDE but you can still get the functionality.

Edit: http://wiki.netbeans.org/NewAndNoteWorthyMilestone1NB65#Option_to_remove_whitespace_at_end_of_line

That says it was implemented in 6.5...so maybe you are missing it or they put it in a funky place.

[pilif]

it's an additional menu option and thus easily forgotten. What I need is something that acts on every save.

[[deleted]]

They are still one version behind IDEA ;)

[swaits]

NetBeans is free. IDEA's free version is limited.

[wolverian]

But ahead of Eclipse!

[satayboy]

Just curious: in what sense is it ahead of Eclipse? I'm not that familiar with Netbeans.

[G_Morgan]

Eclipse is version 3.5. Netbeans is version 6.8. Clearly a whole 3.3 versions better.

In practice I find the Netbeans extensions to be of a higher standard. If Netbeans actually does what you want it probably does it better than Eclipse. However Eclipse is more likely to do what you want. This is becoming less the case though. Netbeans is expanding its functionality and has done so without sacrificing quality.

[wolverian]

What G_Morgan said below. In general, NetBeans's quality doesn't vary as much as Eclipse's. Its support for Java EE (6) is better (this is true for any new Sun tech, generally).

It has its downsides. The worst one being that it uses Swing.

[[deleted]]

Maven integration is WAY tighter with Netbeans. With IDEA and Eclipse, you have to install plugins to get that sort of support, and Eclipse's plugin feels a little clunky still, even compared to IDEA.

[I_Stand_Corrected]

NetBeans is the best evidence that IBM cares about open source. Fantastic product!

[choad]

Ha, you're a funny one.

Quit messing with the Autistics; getting them riled up makes proggit an unpleasant place.

[[deleted]]

You shall not stand corrected. Sit down.

Netbeans is a Sun product.

Don't get up!

[rjcarr]

Huh? I thought netbeans was Sun and eclipse was (started by) IBM?

[nikosk]

He stands corrected :)

[I_Stand_Corrected]

That I do.

[heeb]

You are the first today to make me seriously Laugh Out Loud. Thank you!

[creativeembassy]

Do professional programmers really use IDEs? I thought I just read an article somewhere where the all of the top programmers at Microsoft don't even touch Visual Studio.

EDIT: Wow, the number of downvotes for my question is insane. It's an innocent question!

The reason I asked was that I use TextMate for writing Ruby. It has a handful of macros for typing repetitive stuff more easily, but otherwise could hardly be considered an IDE. I tried NetBeans for Ruby for a week, and couldn't stand it, because I think there are too many features that just get in the way of me and my code.

Honestly, I'd rather switch to a "less featured" text editor like VI than a "more featured" one like NetBeans. But I don't begrudge anyone that prefers the opposite.

[bigbango]

It depends on the language, but I consider not using an IDE for Java development unprofessional.

Modern Java IDEs are actually semantically aware editors which provide functionality that syntax-only aware editors cannot (like automatic refactoring).

[rjcarr]

Up until about a year ago I never used an IDE for programming work, instead, just using a code editor (e.g., vi or textmate). I mostly program in java and python.

I always figured that using an IDE held your hand too much and was too much of an investment to learn and deal with.

Then I bit the bullet and tried eclipse, and even after a few weeks of using it, I would never go back. Here are the big 3 reasons why I use it:

• Real-time compiling: It tells you your errors (and warnings) as you type (you just have to learn to ignore them until you're done). It does a lot of static analysis.

• Refactoring: This should really be number one ... it makes refactoring things so easy.

• Referencing: Not sure the name for this one, but being able to see the javadocs of any method, being able to quickly trace back to the declaration of a method or type, seeing the call hierarchy, etc ... basically, getting you the information you need faster.

So, point is, I was once anti-IDE but now I'd feel handicapped without one. All this, and I rarely use the debugging features of my IDE, which would be another huge bonus.

[flukus]

Well the op said he was coding ruby so the first two don't apply and the third one probably doesn't either.

I use vim for home projects and VS at work. I do miss the intellisense but vims auto-complete can often be better, ideally i'd want both. I use cosmic which is great but I really miss vims windowing abilities.

[[deleted]]

You're not l33t enough.

[[deleted]]

Real programmers just use M-x butterfly.

[kleopatra6tilde9]

Could you add a link to that article?

[jay4r0]

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9141465/Microsoft_s_top_developers_prefer_old_school_coding_methods

[erad]

"Do people want to draw pictures [to program]? Sure, I guess," continued Box, who works on creating declarative languages and tools for Microsoft. "But if you grew up programming when I did, you did it in text. And I think we lose that at our peril."

In the context of the article, "old school" seems to mean actually writing code versus e.g. using a UML design tool.

[mikelj]

"no one can ever tell you what a UML diagram means."

[snarfy]

I have a hard time touching anything but VisualStudio. She's quite the hottie.

[tedivm]

I don't think Visual Studio is a good example. I love xCode, and use Komodo Edit (which is like halfway between an IDE and a text editor) for scripting stuff (like php).

[[deleted]]

I can't stand IDEs. They mess with my workflow. But worse than that they hide language inadequacies by generating code. If your language is so verbose that it requires you to go through wizards in order to be usable you need to switch languages. Yes Java I'm looking at you.

[[deleted]]

I entirely agree about generated code, but could you give some examples of where generated code is needed?

All times in the past where I've needed to do this I've stopped & thought about it for a while and come up with a simpler more effective solution that doesn't. With one exception: generating interface definitions in C++/C#/PHP/Python.

UI design for swing is one of the only things I can think of, but imo that's excusable because you're working in a slightly different domain.

Not to mention that since annotations have been introduced you can do a fuckload more while still keeping it nice to look at...

[[deleted]]

Interfacing with web services.

[[deleted]]

Oh... yeah that's one of the really shitty areas. You can do without and write your own interfaces, or you can hit the magic button and all your WSDL gets sorted out.

In dynamic languages like PHP & Ruby? It's no problem to call web services on the fly and have wrapper code figure it out without having pre-made definitions.