Sun Microsystems released the first beta version of its new IDE
Friday.
The download gives programmers a first-look chance to try out the new
features that will be included in the official release of the IDE, scheduled
for sometime in December. The IDE is available on the Windows, Linux,
Solaris and Mac OS X operating systems.
According to a NetBeans users e-mail message sent Friday by Trung Duc Tran, an engineering manager at Sun, the beta version includes a bunch of productivity improvements on the Java 2, Standard Edition (J2SE) and Java 2, Micro Edition (J2ME) frameworks as well as a project system based on Apache Ant and Java refactoring.
For the first time, Sun’s NetBeans supports J2SE 5.0 (or J2SE 1.5, as it was
formerly called) language improvements, code-named “Tiger” by Sun officials.
The framework, in its second beta review, includes a number of Java
programming improvements like autoboxing of primitive types (like int,
short, double, boolean), generic types and metadata.
J2ME boosters come in the form of support for two mobile Java Specification
Requests (JSR) — JSR 139, Connected, Limited Device Configuration 1.1 and
JSR 118, Mobile Information Device Profile 2.0 — as well as easier
integration with third-party mobile phones and device emulators. The
NetBeans J2ME improvements are available as a separate download, called the
NetBeans Mobility Pack 4.0 beta 1 installer, for developers on the mobile
platform.
Also included in NetBeans 4.0 is support for refactoring, the ability to
make significant changes to an application’s source code without affecting
its functionality. Refactoring is important for developers as it lets them
change the structure of the program and add new behaviors without breaking
the application.
The project build functions of Apache Ant (Another Neat Tool) are included
in 4.0 also. Ant automates the build process of an application, creating a
“build.xml” file to describe how a Java program should be assembled. Ant’s
strength lies in its portability, it can be assembled on any operating
system or platform that uses XML
extra step to make sure Ant is easy to use.
“Beginning users don’t have to know Ant to use the system, but the full
power of Ant is accessible to advanced Ant users,” the e-mail said. “These project types come with built-in support for generating, developing and running unit tests using JUnit, the de facto standard in Java code testing.”
Sun developers are also working on two modules, set for release later this
year, to include with NetBeans 4.0:
developers to see how the application they created is affecting processor
speeds and memory consumption. In development for the past two years,
JFluid is available now as a standalone application in early access mode for
NetBeans 3.6. A beta version for NetBeans 4.0 is expected in December
for building enterprise-wide back-end applications and has only been
supported on the J2SE framework. NetBeans support will allow developers to
create Web services-based
NetBeans, as well as enterprise Java Beans modules and session beans. A
standalone early access module is expected to be released in October.
Developers who want to download the NetBeans 4.0 beta 1 installer or
Mobility Pack beta 1 installer should go here.
