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I legit didn't know NetBeans still existed. I've been on IntelliJ for most of the last decade. Any NetBeans users feel like explaining why they've stuck with i

I legit didn't know NetBeans still existed. I've been on IntelliJ for most of the last decade. Any NetBeans users feel like explaining why they've stuck with it?

tofflos 8y ago
I like the simplicity of it. It has strong Maven-support, does code completion, suggests changes to my code, accelerates my typing with snippets and supports many common refactorings. I don't know how the quality of those features stack up against other IDEs. Maybe I'm missing out but I do feel that they are pretty good. I give IntelliJ and Eclipse a test-drive from time to time but usually uninstall them within the hour. Having said that NetBeans does have some flaws. Recently I've really come to appreciate the terminal integration in Visual Studio Code and would like to see something similar in NetBeans. The author of the article seems interested in native OS integration so perhaps we can expect to see some improvements in this area? ;-)
- BonesJustice 8y ago
  It probably takes at least a week or two using another IDE to really get a feel for its strengths. An hour is definitely not enough time to spend with IntelliJ. But use it for a couple weeks, and you’ll wonder why you ever used anything else. Tip: print out the keymap and try out all the navigation features.
- Rapzid 8y ago
  Love VSCode however had to start working with a Grails stack this year. Support for groovy and gsp not there but they are working on it... Rather, there seems to be movement in tackling the JVM based languages running along side each other. And by they I mean the various teams working on the extensions under the "Java Support" umbrella.
  - vorg 8y ago
    Not sure if any of those "Java Support" teams are really working on Apache Groovy support for VSCode -- they would be working on supporting growing JVM ecosystems (e.g. Java 11, Scala, Kotlin), not declining ones. Virtually every Grails stack out there is still using version 2, even though version 3 was released well over 3 years ago -- a sure sign of a declining ecosystem. Is the Grails stack you're working on any different?
    - Rapzid 8y ago
      It has been upgraded to Grails 3. I can't speak to the wider Groovy and Grails recent trends(I know they have been trending down in recent years), however Grails development seems to be picking up a bit and I'm certainly going to be dealing with it for the foreseeable future. VS Code's Java support actually works really well now with a few rough edges based on a mostly Java project I was working with today. Unfortunately even when components are largely Java, a lot of testing and build scripting(Gradle) will be in Groovy. The terseness is nice for sure.. But it means leaving VS Code for IDEA.
- fierarul 8y ago
  > Recently I've really come to appreciate the terminal integration in Visual Studio Code and would like to see something similar in NetBeans. What terminal integration would you like to see?
  - tofflos 8y ago
    Visual Studio Code provides an actual terminal and allows the user to choose between different terminal implementations such as Bash and Powershell. It also comes with some well thought-out keybindings for switching focus between the integrated terminal and the editor. On Windows NetBeans does not provide a working terminal out of the box, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32959347/netbeans-terminal-window-is-gray-and-wont-accept-characters https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32959347/netbeans-termin.... Also, while not strictly related to the terminal, the output window can not be used with System.console(), see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26078106/system-console-gives-nullpointerexception-in-netbeans https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26078106/system-console-.... Fixing either of these two issues would go a long way for improving the workflow when developing interactive command-line applications. Edit: Oh, and also https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-1783 https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-1783. ;-)
    - fierarul 8y ago
      We do have Window | IDE Tools | Terminal but since I'm always on macOS or Linux I never tested to see if this feature has issues on Windows. I'll test this and see what's going on there.
le-mark 8y ago
I worked at a place that had a large netbeans rich client platform app (phone reps used it to access customer data during calls, among other things), we used netbeans to develop it obviously. I always liked netbeans, it was pretty solid, and a lot more performant than eclipse imo. Nowadays with everyone moving to "language server" support, the barrier to implementing the typical IDE stuff is a lot lower (code completion ie intellisense, error highlighting, etc) This is a good thing.
weerd 8y ago
I use Netbeans for C/C++ development (shocking, I know). Originally I was using it as an Eclipse alternative at a Java gig. After moving into embedded dev I just decided to try and stick with it and see how it goes. It worked. Benefits: - Free, cross platform. Someday I'll shell out $300 for slick edit, but a free IDE is nice. - Solid C++/Makefile code analysis. C++ has a notoriously difficult syntax, but Netbeans can handle it. - support for git and svn to visualize diffs - very configurable syntax coloring & highlighting, also a good dark theme (Darcula) - many configurable keybindings - not vim or emacs ;) Cons: - can be a bit heavy/clunky - there are some quirks that I've learned to work with, perhaps this could be said of any editor... - on large codebases it will take some time to initially parse everything - Java font rendering - looks of disdain and confusion from other engineers it's probably inertia that's kept me from moving to fancier editors, but overall Netbeans has been solid and I'm just as productive as the other guys & gals.
- fierarul 8y ago
  > Cons: > [...] > - looks of disdain and confusion from other engineers > it's probably inertia that's kept me from moving to fancier editors, but overall Netbeans has been solid and I'm just as productive as the other guys & gals. +1
  - karmakaze 8y ago
    +1 this as a 'pro' rather.
    - fierarul 8y ago
      Yes, of course, what's not to like about that confusion?
- syockit 8y ago
  I couldn't find other IDEs that fulfill my need for remote C/C++ development (not just debugging). Maybe Eclipse has that feature as well, but the last time I tried it required me to install Java on the remote machine and start the server by myself, while in Netbeans everything works out of the box and it copies the server to the remote for you (using scp I think). Code analysis is superb, remote git/svn works, I get to browse the function call graph etc. Then one time last year, VS Code was hyping, and I boarded the hype train. C/C++ seems to work... but not so well for my needs. There is no remote git, it uses your computer's compiler for parsing (I had it use WSL's gcc). Everytime I search for howtos of remote C for VS Code, all I see are answers where they ask you back, if you have git why aren't you developing on your computer? Well there's the in-house build system as well, which I don't think I can replicate well on my PC. Too bad C/C++ is no longer an official shipped feature of Netbeans since Apache, but the installable plugin still works well so I have no complaints.
seinecle 8y ago
Netbeans is free, stable, great integration with Maven, git, JavaSE and JavaEE. Why would you choose another IDE for Java development?

I legit didn't know NetBeans still existed. I've been on IntelliJ for most of the last decade. Any NetBeans users feel like explaining why they've stuck with it?

tofflos 8y ago

I like the simplicity of it. It has strong Maven-support, does code completion, suggests changes to my code, accelerates my typing with snippets and supports many common refactorings. I don't know how the quality of those features stack up against other IDEs. Maybe I'm missing out but I do feel that they are pretty good. I give IntelliJ and Eclipse a test-drive from time to time but usually uninstall them within the hour. Having said that NetBeans does have some flaws. Recently I've really come to appreciate the terminal integration in Visual Studio Code and would like to see something similar in NetBeans. The author of the article seems interested in native OS integration so perhaps we can expect to see some improvements in this area? ;-)

BonesJustice 8y ago
It probably takes at least a week or two using another IDE to really get a feel for its strengths. An hour is definitely not enough time to spend with IntelliJ. But use it for a couple weeks, and you’ll wonder why you ever used anything else. Tip: print out the keymap and try out all the navigation features.
Rapzid 8y ago
Love VSCode however had to start working with a Grails stack this year. Support for groovy and gsp not there but they are working on it... Rather, there seems to be movement in tackling the JVM based languages running along side each other. And by they I mean the various teams working on the extensions under the "Java Support" umbrella.
- vorg 8y ago
  Not sure if any of those "Java Support" teams are really working on Apache Groovy support for VSCode -- they would be working on supporting growing JVM ecosystems (e.g. Java 11, Scala, Kotlin), not declining ones. Virtually every Grails stack out there is still using version 2, even though version 3 was released well over 3 years ago -- a sure sign of a declining ecosystem. Is the Grails stack you're working on any different?
  - Rapzid 8y ago
    It has been upgraded to Grails 3. I can't speak to the wider Groovy and Grails recent trends(I know they have been trending down in recent years), however Grails development seems to be picking up a bit and I'm certainly going to be dealing with it for the foreseeable future. VS Code's Java support actually works really well now with a few rough edges based on a mostly Java project I was working with today. Unfortunately even when components are largely Java, a lot of testing and build scripting(Gradle) will be in Groovy. The terseness is nice for sure.. But it means leaving VS Code for IDEA.
fierarul 8y ago
> Recently I've really come to appreciate the terminal integration in Visual Studio Code and would like to see something similar in NetBeans. What terminal integration would you like to see?
- tofflos 8y ago
  Visual Studio Code provides an actual terminal and allows the user to choose between different terminal implementations such as Bash and Powershell. It also comes with some well thought-out keybindings for switching focus between the integrated terminal and the editor. On Windows NetBeans does not provide a working terminal out of the box, see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32959347/netbeans-terminal-window-is-gray-and-wont-accept-characters https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32959347/netbeans-termin.... Also, while not strictly related to the terminal, the output window can not be used with System.console(), see https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26078106/system-console-gives-nullpointerexception-in-netbeans https://stackoverflow.com/questions/26078106/system-console-.... Fixing either of these two issues would go a long way for improving the workflow when developing interactive command-line applications. Edit: Oh, and also https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-1783 https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-1783. ;-)
  - fierarul 8y ago
    We do have Window | IDE Tools | Terminal but since I'm always on macOS or Linux I never tested to see if this feature has issues on Windows. I'll test this and see what's going on there.

le-mark 8y ago

I worked at a place that had a large netbeans rich client platform app (phone reps used it to access customer data during calls, among other things), we used netbeans to develop it obviously. I always liked netbeans, it was pretty solid, and a lot more performant than eclipse imo. Nowadays with everyone moving to "language server" support, the barrier to implementing the typical IDE stuff is a lot lower (code completion ie intellisense, error highlighting, etc) This is a good thing.

weerd 8y ago

I use Netbeans for C/C++ development (shocking, I know). Originally I was using it as an Eclipse alternative at a Java gig. After moving into embedded dev I just decided to try and stick with it and see how it goes. It worked. Benefits: - Free, cross platform. Someday I'll shell out $300 for slick edit, but a free IDE is nice. - Solid C++/Makefile code analysis. C++ has a notoriously difficult syntax, but Netbeans can handle it. - support for git and svn to visualize diffs - very configurable syntax coloring & highlighting, also a good dark theme (Darcula) - many configurable keybindings - not vim or emacs ;) Cons: - can be a bit heavy/clunky - there are some quirks that I've learned to work with, perhaps this could be said of any editor... - on large codebases it will take some time to initially parse everything - Java font rendering - looks of disdain and confusion from other engineers it's probably inertia that's kept me from moving to fancier editors, but overall Netbeans has been solid and I'm just as productive as the other guys & gals.

fierarul 8y ago
> Cons: > [...] > - looks of disdain and confusion from other engineers > it's probably inertia that's kept me from moving to fancier editors, but overall Netbeans has been solid and I'm just as productive as the other guys & gals. +1
- karmakaze 8y ago
  +1 this as a 'pro' rather.
  - fierarul 8y ago
    Yes, of course, what's not to like about that confusion?
syockit 8y ago
I couldn't find other IDEs that fulfill my need for remote C/C++ development (not just debugging). Maybe Eclipse has that feature as well, but the last time I tried it required me to install Java on the remote machine and start the server by myself, while in Netbeans everything works out of the box and it copies the server to the remote for you (using scp I think). Code analysis is superb, remote git/svn works, I get to browse the function call graph etc. Then one time last year, VS Code was hyping, and I boarded the hype train. C/C++ seems to work... but not so well for my needs. There is no remote git, it uses your computer's compiler for parsing (I had it use WSL's gcc). Everytime I search for howtos of remote C for VS Code, all I see are answers where they ask you back, if you have git why aren't you developing on your computer? Well there's the in-house build system as well, which I don't think I can replicate well on my PC. Too bad C/C++ is no longer an official shipped feature of Netbeans since Apache, but the installable plugin still works well so I have no complaints.

seinecle 8y ago

Netbeans is free, stable, great integration with Maven, git, JavaSE and JavaEE. Why would you choose another IDE for Java development?