Netbeans Reviews
- Lab test: Climb aboard Ruby on Rails
InfoWorld - 07/07/08
In a nine product roundup, the InfoWorld Test Center evaluated Rails IDEs, and NetBeans 6.1 earned the top honors with a score of 9.0 out of 10. InfoWorld commented, "If you already use NetBeans for Java and/or C/C++ development, then it should probably be your top choice as a Rails IDE as well. Delivering strong editing and navigation along with good debugging and profiling, it's a very capable and highly integrated Rails IDE. And it's free."
- Eclipse 3.3 or NetBeans 6.0?
JavaWorld - 03/18/08
JavaWorld published a review written by Andrew Binstock, comparing of NetBeans 6.0 and Eclipse 3.3. Binstock rated each platform in various categories, and NetBeans edges Eclipse. Binstock concludes that the score signifies "the arrival of NetBeans", and notes that this is the first review he has conducted where "NetBeans truly stands on par with Eclipse."
- Using NetBeans IDE for RESTful Web Services
SearchSOA.com - 03/04/08
William Brogdon publishes a tutorial on using NetBeans IDE for creating RESTful web services, and includes an evaluation of NetBeans 6. William begins the article by reviewing the history of NetBeans, noting the open source projects and standards efforts happening in the NetBeans and Java ecosystem as being on the cutting edge of web services development. In this vein, he calls out JAX-RS, the Java API for RESTful web services and how "delighted" he was to learn that it was added as a plug-in for NetBeans 6.0. He then discusses his experience in installing NetBeans, noting how the plug-in manager "provides an elegant system for keeping up with updates or picking the plug-ins you need." He wraps-up the article by positively highlighting the NetBeans debugging capabilities, stating "Netbeans provides plenty of support for programming and debugging."
- Real-Life Rails: Develop with NetBeans, Deploy on Linux
DevX.com - 02/14/08
Mark Watson writes a comprehensive tutorial on how to use "his preferred Rails development IDE" NetBeans to build medium-scale Rails applications. Mark guides readers through how to set up NetBeans for Rails development to change the Ruby setting from JRuby to another Ruby system, and explains how to use the Rails Generator in NetBeans to make development "as convenient as possible." He further provides a number of specific tips on how developers new to NetBeans can shorten their learning curve.
- Ruby runs on Rails with NetBeans
The Register - 02/13/08
This article is the second part of the two-part review of NetBeans, and this one is very positive as well. Written by developer Pan Pantziarka, this one focuses again on NetBeans support for Ruby on Rails and drills down deeper into this functionality. In his introduction, he states that support for Ruby is one of the major reasons why NetBeans is "getting its second wind." He illustrates the aspects of NetBeans Ruby support by walking readers through his experience building a sample link sharing application that he calls "Linkshare — along the lines of Reddit." In the end, he describes how easy it was to create this application using NetBeans "in just a few minutes." He then states, "It's why Ruby on Rails has made such a splash, and shows how well Ruby on Rails has been integrated into NetBeans."
- Polished NetBeans means Ruby, part 1
The Register - 01/31/08
This positive review by Pan Pantziarka focuses primarily on the support for Ruby in NetBeans 6.0, but covers a few other areas as well. Pantziarka opens the review by offering the opinion that the Java IDE tide has risen because of the popularity of Eclipse, and this has helped to lift NetBeans as well over the past few years. He then puts forth his premise that while this has been the case, NetBeans 6.0 brings it to par with Eclipse and sets it up to take off in terms of more adoption. "The NetBeans of today is a long way from the bloated and poorly performing beast it was a few years ago. Indications are that perceptions are changing, too, and that in the case of Ruby at least, NetBeans is closing the gap on certain rivals."
- NetBeans 6.0: A First Look
Dr. Dobb's Journal - 01/24/08
In a very positive review, Eric Bruno covers what he feels are the areas of improvements most requested by developers. In particular, he highlights installation, the code editor, tools support, and other improvements like project support, local history, EasyDoc creation and Web services and database support. In his conclusion, Eric makes note of how Sun has converged its range of development platforms to NetBeans by saying, "When you combine the tool and language support, the license offerings (CDDL, and GPL v2 plus the CLASSPATH exception), the supported operating systems (Solaris, Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows), and other available developer applications (such as OpenSolaris, MySQL, and PostgreSQL), Sun offers the largest degree of choice and flexibility for all types of development when compared with competing offerings."
- NetBeans 6.0: Cooking at Last
SD Times - 01/01/08
In a very positive review, Andrew Binstock write how NetBeans 6.0 is an exceptional release because Sun's focus on the most important parts of the platform - the coding and editing experience. He states, "With NetBeans 6.0, it has come a long way in this regard, and shored up its longstanding weakness." He goes on to write that with all of the other great things that Sun has built into NetBeans in recent years (collaboration, great Swing editor, Java EE tools, etc.), "it is now in a position to take users away from Eclipse and other IDEs."
- NetBeans 6.0: New Core Features in Depth
Java Developers' Journal - 11/01/07
In a positive JDJ review, this writer focused on new features, improved architecture and better code completion with the release of NetBeans 6.0. The writer praises all of the improvements made to this new version and believes that it is "worthy of the bump in the major version number."
- Move Over Eclipse. NetBeans 6 Rocks!
JavaLobby - 06/11/07
In a very positive review, NetBeans 6.0 is compared to the previous NetBeans 5.5 and Eclipse. The reviewer highlights half a dozen of his favorite improvements in the latest version, including the overall look and feel, UI Gestures Collector, speed and performance, and lack of earlier bugs. He concludes his review stating, "Overall, I am very impressed with NetBeans 6 so far. Congratulations to the NetBeans team for their excellent work on this release. I would encourage you to check it out."
|
 |
|
|
- Baffled by Brain Drain in Your Java Apps?
Software Test & Performance - 04/01/07
The "how-to" article by Sun's Gregg Sporar and A. Sundararajan delves into the issue of Java application memory leaks and provides readers practical advice and techniques of how to plug them using tools like NetBeans Profiler.
- Reinvigorated Java IDEs Change the Development Landscape
InfoWorld - 03/26/07
In a comparative review of Java IDEs, InfoWorld reviewer Andrew Binstock praises NetBeans 5.5 for its collaboration features and GUI layout tool, which he claims is the "best" of its kind and the "choice for sites that do a lot of Swing-based interfaces." Giving the product a 7.4 ("Good") out of 10 rating, Andrew concludes that NetBeans 5.5 is "Not only is it free, but it is more responsive than the Eclipse-based products and easier to navigate, as it forgoes the "views" design embraced by Eclipse and simply uses windows. Also, NetBeans is frequently revved, enjoys a very active community, and benefits from a plug-in inventory second only to that of Eclipse."
- Eclipse, NetBeans, and IntelliJ: Assessing the Survivors of the Java IDE Wars
DevX.com - 03/13/07
In a very positive DevX.com comparative review between NetBeans 5.5, IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse, NetBeans fairs very well, excelling in overall stability and performance, Swing development and JPA support. The reviewer "really liked" NetBeans 5.5 and feels "it has delivered some amazing features in its latest release (and much more to come in NetBeans 6.0)." Overall, he names NetBeans 5.5 the winner of two out of the four testing categories.
- Tool Report: NetBeans Profiler
JavaPerformanceTuning.com - 01/30/07
This "Tool Report" published by JavaPerformanceTuning.com provides a comprehensive look at the NetBeans Profiler tool. It gives readers a detailed look at the tool's features and benefits, and offers a great example of how the tool can be used to identify CPU performance problems for a Web application that calculates prime numbers. In addition, it gives readers a preview of new features coming in NetBeans Profiler 6.0.
- NetBeans 5.5: Java IDE Comes into Its Own
JavaBoutique.com - 01/10/07
NetBeans 5.5 makes a positive impression on reviewer Benoy Jose, who claims the latest version "has grown really well and includes features that rival the finest in the market today." After highlighting the several new NetBeans featues, he concludes that the product, "will soon have a user base that rivals Eclipse. Eclipse and NetBeans are all set to conquer the IDE market in the next few years."
- Product Spotlight: NetBeans 5.5
CRN - 12/11/06
Mario Morejon takes a look at Sun's NetBeans 5.5, claiming "with every version of Sun's NetBeans and the accompanying functionality, this venerable IDE is starting to look and behave like Eclipse - or even better."
- Preview: NetBeans 5.5
InfoWorld - 11/20/06
Andrew Binstock takes a look at NetBeans 5.5, praising its new features and capabilities, and concludes, "NetBeans has the most complete support for Java EE 5 of the open-source Java IDEs. It's an impressive collection of tools; developers contemplating enterprise Java applications should evaluate NetBeans before any other products."
- NetBeans attempts to eclipse Eclipse
InfoWorld - 04/17/06
This review of NetBeans 5.0 in InfoWorld by Andrew Binstock noted that the release of NetBeans 5.0 makes the Java IDE market "tighter" due to the improvements to NetBeans' usability and the Matisse GUI builder. Andrew gave a strong nod to NetBeans' competitive advantage by stating "it is more intuitive than Eclipse and, as opposed to that product, it does not get in the way of developing. You can create a complex project, code away, import resources, and build and debug the executable in NetBeans without ever looking at tutorials or consulting the help system. That's an almost impossible feat for a first-time user in Eclipse."
- Building Java GUIs with Matisse: A Gentle Introduction
Developer.com - 03/08/06
In this tutorial, Dick Wall walked developers through the ins and outs of the Matisse GUI builder in NetBeans 5.0 using an example application for handling "flubs", i.e. mistakes in podcast recordings that are edited out to get to a final podcast. Through this article, Wall provided readers with a tutorial on building Java GUI's using the tool. In doing so, he painted a picture for how Java UI building has evolved and stated that Matisse advances the state of the art: "Matisse is Java UI building done right."
- NetBeans 5.0 makes 'free' look good
eWEEK - 02/02/06
In this 2-page review of NetBeans 5.0, Peter Coffee opened with a very positive assessment: "NetBeans IDE 5.0 is a substantial step toward bringing open-source, multiplatform Java tools up to the standard of toolmaking that is arguably defined by Microsoft's Windows-only Visual Studio." Peter mostly covered Project Matisse ("Matisse greatly eases the design of a graphical interface whose components' arrangement and size adjust automatically, whether to suit varying device constraints or in response to actions such as resizing windows"), and improvements to the source code editor ("In the manner of the best such tools, it now gives immediate warning of errors that would make code unable to compile"). He also noted NetBeans 5.0 performance by stating, "NetBeans 5.0's interactive speed and its general fidelity to platform user interface conventions should satisfy most developers."
- Dynamic Bytecode Instrumentation
Dr. Dobb's Journal - 02/01/06
This how-to article by Gregg Sporar and Ian Formanek of Sun offered practical advice to Java programmers for mastering the "black art" of profiling Java applications. Gregg and Ian introduced the concept of dynamic bytecode instrumentation as an innovative solution to the problem of tuning the performance of Java applications. The benefit, as Gregg and Ian put it, is it "lets you control precisely which parts of an application are profiled. As a result, only relevant information is reported, and the impact on application performance is reduced so that even large applications can be profiled easily."
|
