Granted, I'm but a Java programmer and not even a veteran at that. I'm
still
heavily leaning on the commandline when it comes to trying out certain
things
and one can even say that my learning experience with Java hasn't stopped
by a
long shot. However, when it comes to some serious (and bigger) projects
I'm a
veteran NetBeans user. I started using Netbeans 4.x and immediatly adopted
it
as my personal favorite. If it wasn't for the "platform approach" on NB5.x
(which is incompatible with 4) I'd probably still be keeping 4 around as
well.
Having said all that... I took a closer look at the upcoming Netbeans
release
when it was still in beta and now that the first release candidate is out
I
took another look. To be honost I can't say I'm very pleased with the
results.
To me its a major setback when it comes to plain and sheer functionality.
As
you may, or may not, know people decided to do a full rewrite on the
Netbeans
code. I don't know all the details, as said I'm but a mere using
programmer,
but some deemed this necessary. So far, so good.
The bad news however is that it seems that many bugs which have been
solved in
the past have now returned to the flock. Some of these bugs are quite
small,
granted, but that doesn't mean that they can't be annoying. For example;
in a
bigger project its impossible right now to quickly determine by looking at
the
icons in the projects window which class is (are) the Main class(es) and
which
class is not.
It becomes very upsetting (to me that is) when you start looking at
features
which have been left /out/ of Netbeans for various reasons. From "no time
to
rewrite" (which is a legitimate reason, let there be no mistake about
this!) to
"I wasn't happy with it".
So when things are going this way we'll be presented with an IDE which can
setup a fully working desktop application (even with database connections
if it
has to) without the need to write a single line of code but won't be able
to
quickly display all Bean Patterns in a class. Worse yet; it doesn't even
sup****t an option to quickly add or remove single patterns or bean
information
any more. Yes; I am well aware that you can still utilize "encapsulate
fields"
but iirc that option was already there in NB4. Back then it was considered
inadequate, now things seem to have changed again.
Another option I consider to be a major setback is the lack of the "auto
comment" feature. This would quickly line up all the (non-) documented
items in
your class and display if the javadocs were setup completely. In a single
glance you'd see what needs change on the javadoc and what not.
Not anymore... All of this has been either left out (Bean Pattern sup****t)
or
simply trimmed down only to re-appear in a totally cut down form (JavaDoc)
which is said to be "enhanced" in the future. Right now (talking about
rc1) all
you'll see is a lightbulb which warns you about missing (or wrong)
javadocs.
Ofcourse only when the cursor is on the offending line, so bye bye quick
overview on whats right and wrong. In my personal opinion totally useless
when
it comes to documenting bigger classes.
Why I'm commenting this as some sort of "Vista for Java" ? Simple: when
adding
all of this up one could wonder if NB6 is really ready for serious usage.
Heck;
even the Java tutorial is leaning on Netbeans these days, by simply
removing
sup****t for certain aspects (for example javabeans) Netbeans is basicly
becoming incompatible with the Java tutorials. And then I cannot help
wonder
"why?". Why the need to rush (my impression) the latest release when its
not
even fully finished yet? Why can't things simply be postponed in order to
give
people more time and oppertunity to get it all sorted out?
Heck; its an open source project. Who cares when it takes them another 6
or 12
months before the latest release will come out ? I could be mistaken here
ofcourse but IMO the main focus is making the programming experience more
enjoyable and easier on the programmer. But with the way things are going
now I
can't help wonder if they're not trying to release Netbeans right before
christmas so that people can enjoy all the new eyecandy right during the
holiday seasons.
Which is exactly the biggest concern most people have with Vista. It looks
and
feels awesome but when it comes down to certain specific tasks it can be
very
cumbersome. And here too we see discussions on "Wasn't it released too
early?".
You'll see most people agree that it looks pretty neat, has quite some
potential but apart from that....
Oh well, for me its a little deja-vu here. When 5.0 came it I disliked it
as
well, and stuck with 4.x for a long time beyond that. Only when certain
specific updates started coming out did I eventually make the move. I
wonder if
this time it'll take the NB 6.1 release.
</rant>
Right, figured its a lot more ontopic to rant about in this group 8-)
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