7 ms·

NetBeans 10.0

94 points by pplonski86 8y ago

suyash 8y ago
good to hear and congratulations to all who contributed. Any update on Javascript front?
spapas82 8y ago
I remember using netbeans around 15 years ago as a java IDE. Since then I changed it to eclipse which I also changed to Intellij Idea. I wasn't aware that netbeans was still developed! Is anybody using it as his primary java (or other lang) IDE? How is it compared with Intellij Idea and friends? How resource hungry is it?
- peterashford 8y ago
  Netbeans is my go-to Java editor. I find it a better Java editor than Visual Studio is a C# editor. My workplace has a love affair with Resharper and I can't help but think that it's an inferior copy of what Netbeans does for free
- TylerE 8y ago
  Idea, even the free version, is light years ahead of either, imo. NB and Eclipse are just...janky.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    How do you do mixed mode debugging of Java / C++ code, or incremental compilation on save, disable continous indexing on project startup, in that light years ahead IDE? All features easily supported on Eclipse, Netbeans and Oracle Studio. And without making the CPU fan run at full throttle, if possible? EDIT: I forgot to type disable
    - neeleshs 8y ago
      I agree. I'm a long time intellij user, but now increasingly looking at eclipse and netbeans for exactly those reasons.
      - rch 8y ago
        I still use Eclipse but only because I'm accustomed to ignoring the problems (e.g. the "marketplace", Orion, defaulting to external editors, etc).
    - jayd16 8y ago
      As far as I'm aware, Intellij does do its own incremental build process and index things on start up. For debugging JNI there's no great option but supposedly there's a plugin that will do the job.
      - pjmlp 8y ago
        It was a typo, I meant being able to disable the continuous indexing on start, that brings the computer to a crawl every time I start Idea. InteliJ incremental compilation is so good that many use Eclipse's compiler running as daemon as workaround. As for the plugin I rather use a properly integrated feature.
    - Asooka 8y ago
      Everything except mixed mode debugging Just Worked (tm) last time I used IntelliJ to write Java code. I didn't notice performance problems and never had to configure those features. We used the Maven build system. I last used NetBeans maybe 12 years ago and it was very janky and prone to crashes, freezes, etc. Since then I haven't had a need to try it again because other IDEs were good enough and I hadn't seen it ever praised anywhere online, also I haven't had to write any Java in the last 6 years or so.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      >How do you do mixed mode debugging of Java / C++ code You don't, and it doesn't matter much, since that's a niche concern. The others, sure.
      - pjmlp 8y ago
        From my point of view it is a trick to sell two licenses instead of one. Using JNI isn't such a niche concern.
      - vkaku 8y ago
        That's not true. Every Java Programmer who cares about the right amount of performance writes native code.
        coldtea 8y ago
        So, like 5% at most?
        pjmlp 8y ago
        I bet it is more, but just to go with your number, it is still 5% more Clion sales due to those devs. The same trick that they are playing with Kotlin/Native by the way, whose graphical debugging support is only available on Clion.
  - southerndrift 8y ago
    If you copy-paste some code, Eclipse can manage the imports with one command (ctrl-shift-o if i remember correctly). In Idea, I haven't found a better way than to visit each line that has a new type and import each class with alt-enter. Idea seems to have more features, but Eclipse has the smoother workflow.
    - TylerE 8y ago
      Try optimize imports?
      - southerndrift 8y ago
        Yes, that didn't work as expected.
        Larrikin 8y ago
        It does the opposite of what you want. It removes the imports that aren't used and consolidates or expands the used ones. When you copy and paste code from within the editor the imports should also come along. Copy and pasted code from outside sources seems like it should be looked at line by line for the proper imports.
        southerndrift 8y ago
        Eclipse can do it both ways. There is no need to look at a line if there is just one class to choose from. If the line is important, i will look at it. But the first priority is to get it running.
  - Arwill 8y ago
    How about the bugs in IDEA? You try to refactor, and it does a search-and-replace even on text literals, messing up not just comments but strings. Sure, there is an option to disable that, but you have to use a special shortcut to bring up a popup to disable it, and you have to do it every time. Same feature, behaves differently when started from menu or from shortcut.. Then the where-used-list not working, just because, well it bugs out from time to time... For features i need, for the way i work, Netbeans is more dependable, and fun to code in. I see features in IDEA that are similar to Visual Studio, and its a bit funny, how they try to copy it.
- theandrewbailey 8y ago
  I prefer Netbeans for what little Java programming I do anymore. It doesn't seem more intensive than Eclipse is (I've never used Intellij. I know, I know). I love Netbeans' code completion engine, in that it takes types into account, e.g. if it knows that you need a string for this parameter of the function you're calling, it will suggest string variables first, but in, say, Eclipse, it will put everything in there alphabetically (down to things like ints), regardless of type.
  - spapas82 8y ago
    Excellent I'll give it a go!
  - electrum 8y ago
    IntelliJ completion takes into account both type and name. For example, if you have two string variables, it will suggest the one that matches or is similar to the method parameter name. In general, IntelliJ has a lot of features that feel like magic (likely a pile of smart heuristics that have been added over the years).
  - mypalmike 8y ago
    All the major Java IDEs take type and scope into consideration for code completion precedence. Eclipse did this at least as far back as around 2005 when I first was using it.
pjmlp 8y ago
It still is my favourite Java IDE, even if it has lost quite some love from the community.
mdaniel 8y ago
Relevant related post about a NetBeans distribution, which I haven't used but if you're in this thread then it will likely interest you: > Show HN: CoolBeans, an IDE distribution - http://coolbeans.xyz/ http://coolbeans.xyz/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18758867 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18758867
blinky1456 8y ago
Any PHP devs here? what IDEs are you using currently. Is netbeans considered crummy for modern development? People keep making offhand comments about it lately, and i wondered if there is a much better(and free) alternative I am overlooking.
- kreitje 8y ago
  PHPStorm is what I use and hear a lot of. After Zend Studio switched over to Eclipse, I moved to Sublime Text, then PHPStorm/JetBrains I haven't heard of people using Netbeans for PHP in ages. I don't know if PHPStorm still has their Early Access program, but it basically gave you a free 30 day build of their beta version. Within 30 days there was a new build and the ticker started over again.
- smacktoward 8y ago
  I use PHPStorm these days. It's quite good. Long ago I was a Netbeans user, but at some point I switched over and never really looked back.
- paaaaaaaaaa 8y ago
  I used to use Netbeans for PHP dev and loved it but development of the IDE seemed to slow down and the transition to the Apache foundation took too long. I have since gotten very familiar to using VS Code with the PHP intelliSense addon. VS Code is very fast and light on resources and has an addon for almost everything.
- n1vz3r 8y ago
  I use NetBeans for PHP development for last 10 years, and never regretted it. It has plenty of features that save my time when it comes to code navigation, also since circa 2012 Java got considerably faster on Linux, so almost no lag is perceived. It's great news that Apache finally added PHP support back to it because I'm still on 8.2. As for other IDEs, sometimes I use Kate with Projects plugin (it allows to grep all filenames that are in version control) for quick edits. All KFramework-based tools feel much faster than Gnome or Java-based ones, but Kate has a set of show-stopper "not-a-bug" issues (like shitty tab handling) which make it inusable for uninterrupted, productive work. P.S. Can't say much about Apache, but when I submitted a ticket to old NetBeans about high CPU usage in some version-control-related scenarios - that was back in 2013 - the ticket was closed and issue was fixed less than in a week. I never expected such agility from projects of this scale.
jaimex2 8y ago
I still prefer NetBeans having tried the alternatives. Something just makes sense to me about how certain features worked that I couldn't get comfortable with in IntelliJ and Eclipse. These included: - Jumping around code with clicks on functions - The code completion with verbose JavaDoc/comment details - The profiling and debugger tools were supper easy to use - Automatic Maven dependency management resolutions
vkaku 8y ago
My beef with Java 11 has been that the detection of Java.dll has not been perfect for Program Data\Oracle\JavaPath, the IDE installers and common executables. Did Oracle break something with JDK 11?
ykevinator 8y ago
It was the best rails ide.
yakubin 8y ago
What is the difference between netbeans.org and netbeans.apache.org?
badsectoracula 8y ago
I wish they had an installer and a bundle with JDK that did everything automatically, as Sun used to provide back in the day. I mean, sure, it isn't much of a deal to go to netbeans.org, go to apache.netbeans.org, download netbeans, uncompress it somewhere, go in the bin folder, doubleclick on the netbeans64.exe, get a weird message about jdk 1.8 not found, go to adoptopenjdk.org, wtf, google, go to adoptopenjdk.net, answer one million questions so they give you one link instead of providing a page of all versions available, download the linked zip file, uncompress it somewhere, go to system settings->advanced->whatever->path->dialog->whatever to edit the jdk to path, go back to wherever you had netbeans64, double click it, get same weird message about jdk 1.8 not found (why doesn't it ask me??), go back to the netbeans download page to see if there is any info anywhere, go to netbeans github site, look for the source code of the netbeans launcher, read the code to see that the launcher uses a configuration file under ..\etc, edit the configuration file to make it point to the JDK location, try again running netbeans64.exe, finally have it working, right-drag-drop the exe to the desktop, rename the shortcut to Netbeans and finally wonder where the world went wrong. Sure, not much of a deal, but i don't know, it looks kinda sloppy to me and i'd like a proper installer. (ps. just because this is kinda sorta negative, doesn't mean i dislike netbeans, it is just that i don't have anything positive to say that isn't already said... well, ok, here is a bit of positiveness: i don't write java often anymore, but when i do, i prefer netbeans because i like how simple it feels)
hestefisk 8y ago
I used Netbeans to develop EJB3 based web applications about 10 years ago on top of JBoss. At that time it was superior to IntelliJ in terms of code generation, templates, config support and others. It is not the most beautiful UX, but it works.

94 points by pplonski86 8y ago

good to hear and congratulations to all who contributed. Any update on Javascript front?

I remember using netbeans around 15 years ago as a java IDE. Since then I changed it to eclipse which I also changed to Intellij Idea. I wasn't aware that netbeans was still developed! Is anybody using it as his primary java (or other lang) IDE? How is it compared with Intellij Idea and friends? How resource hungry is it?

peterashford 8y ago
Netbeans is my go-to Java editor. I find it a better Java editor than Visual Studio is a C# editor. My workplace has a love affair with Resharper and I can't help but think that it's an inferior copy of what Netbeans does for free
TylerE 8y ago
Idea, even the free version, is light years ahead of either, imo. NB and Eclipse are just...janky.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  How do you do mixed mode debugging of Java / C++ code, or incremental compilation on save, disable continous indexing on project startup, in that light years ahead IDE? All features easily supported on Eclipse, Netbeans and Oracle Studio. And without making the CPU fan run at full throttle, if possible? EDIT: I forgot to type disable
  - neeleshs 8y ago
    I agree. I'm a long time intellij user, but now increasingly looking at eclipse and netbeans for exactly those reasons.
    - rch 8y ago
      I still use Eclipse but only because I'm accustomed to ignoring the problems (e.g. the "marketplace", Orion, defaulting to external editors, etc).
  - jayd16 8y ago
    As far as I'm aware, Intellij does do its own incremental build process and index things on start up. For debugging JNI there's no great option but supposedly there's a plugin that will do the job.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      It was a typo, I meant being able to disable the continuous indexing on start, that brings the computer to a crawl every time I start Idea. InteliJ incremental compilation is so good that many use Eclipse's compiler running as daemon as workaround. As for the plugin I rather use a properly integrated feature.
  - Asooka 8y ago
    Everything except mixed mode debugging Just Worked (tm) last time I used IntelliJ to write Java code. I didn't notice performance problems and never had to configure those features. We used the Maven build system. I last used NetBeans maybe 12 years ago and it was very janky and prone to crashes, freezes, etc. Since then I haven't had a need to try it again because other IDEs were good enough and I hadn't seen it ever praised anywhere online, also I haven't had to write any Java in the last 6 years or so.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    >How do you do mixed mode debugging of Java / C++ code You don't, and it doesn't matter much, since that's a niche concern. The others, sure.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      From my point of view it is a trick to sell two licenses instead of one. Using JNI isn't such a niche concern.
    - vkaku 8y ago
      That's not true. Every Java Programmer who cares about the right amount of performance writes native code.
      - coldtea 8y ago
        So, like 5% at most?
        pjmlp 8y ago
        I bet it is more, but just to go with your number, it is still 5% more Clion sales due to those devs. The same trick that they are playing with Kotlin/Native by the way, whose graphical debugging support is only available on Clion.
- southerndrift 8y ago
  If you copy-paste some code, Eclipse can manage the imports with one command (ctrl-shift-o if i remember correctly). In Idea, I haven't found a better way than to visit each line that has a new type and import each class with alt-enter. Idea seems to have more features, but Eclipse has the smoother workflow.
  - TylerE 8y ago
    Try optimize imports?
    - southerndrift 8y ago
      Yes, that didn't work as expected.
      - Larrikin 8y ago
        It does the opposite of what you want. It removes the imports that aren't used and consolidates or expands the used ones. When you copy and paste code from within the editor the imports should also come along. Copy and pasted code from outside sources seems like it should be looked at line by line for the proper imports.
        southerndrift 8y ago
        Eclipse can do it both ways. There is no need to look at a line if there is just one class to choose from. If the line is important, i will look at it. But the first priority is to get it running.
- Arwill 8y ago
  How about the bugs in IDEA? You try to refactor, and it does a search-and-replace even on text literals, messing up not just comments but strings. Sure, there is an option to disable that, but you have to use a special shortcut to bring up a popup to disable it, and you have to do it every time. Same feature, behaves differently when started from menu or from shortcut.. Then the where-used-list not working, just because, well it bugs out from time to time... For features i need, for the way i work, Netbeans is more dependable, and fun to code in. I see features in IDEA that are similar to Visual Studio, and its a bit funny, how they try to copy it.
theandrewbailey 8y ago
I prefer Netbeans for what little Java programming I do anymore. It doesn't seem more intensive than Eclipse is (I've never used Intellij. I know, I know). I love Netbeans' code completion engine, in that it takes types into account, e.g. if it knows that you need a string for this parameter of the function you're calling, it will suggest string variables first, but in, say, Eclipse, it will put everything in there alphabetically (down to things like ints), regardless of type.
- spapas82 8y ago
  Excellent I'll give it a go!
- electrum 8y ago
  IntelliJ completion takes into account both type and name. For example, if you have two string variables, it will suggest the one that matches or is similar to the method parameter name. In general, IntelliJ has a lot of features that feel like magic (likely a pile of smart heuristics that have been added over the years).
- mypalmike 8y ago
  All the major Java IDEs take type and scope into consideration for code completion precedence. Eclipse did this at least as far back as around 2005 when I first was using it.

pjmlp 8y ago

It still is my favourite Java IDE, even if it has lost quite some love from the community.

mdaniel 8y ago

Relevant related post about a NetBeans distribution, which I haven't used but if you're in this thread then it will likely interest you: > Show HN: CoolBeans, an IDE distribution - http://coolbeans.xyz/ http://coolbeans.xyz/ https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18758867 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18758867

blinky1456 8y ago

Any PHP devs here? what IDEs are you using currently. Is netbeans considered crummy for modern development? People keep making offhand comments about it lately, and i wondered if there is a much better(and free) alternative I am overlooking.

kreitje 8y ago
PHPStorm is what I use and hear a lot of. After Zend Studio switched over to Eclipse, I moved to Sublime Text, then PHPStorm/JetBrains I haven't heard of people using Netbeans for PHP in ages. I don't know if PHPStorm still has their Early Access program, but it basically gave you a free 30 day build of their beta version. Within 30 days there was a new build and the ticker started over again.
smacktoward 8y ago
I use PHPStorm these days. It's quite good. Long ago I was a Netbeans user, but at some point I switched over and never really looked back.
paaaaaaaaaa 8y ago
I used to use Netbeans for PHP dev and loved it but development of the IDE seemed to slow down and the transition to the Apache foundation took too long. I have since gotten very familiar to using VS Code with the PHP intelliSense addon. VS Code is very fast and light on resources and has an addon for almost everything.
n1vz3r 8y ago
I use NetBeans for PHP development for last 10 years, and never regretted it. It has plenty of features that save my time when it comes to code navigation, also since circa 2012 Java got considerably faster on Linux, so almost no lag is perceived. It's great news that Apache finally added PHP support back to it because I'm still on 8.2. As for other IDEs, sometimes I use Kate with Projects plugin (it allows to grep all filenames that are in version control) for quick edits. All KFramework-based tools feel much faster than Gnome or Java-based ones, but Kate has a set of show-stopper "not-a-bug" issues (like shitty tab handling) which make it inusable for uninterrupted, productive work. P.S. Can't say much about Apache, but when I submitted a ticket to old NetBeans about high CPU usage in some version-control-related scenarios - that was back in 2013 - the ticket was closed and issue was fixed less than in a week. I never expected such agility from projects of this scale.

jaimex2 8y ago

I still prefer NetBeans having tried the alternatives. Something just makes sense to me about how certain features worked that I couldn't get comfortable with in IntelliJ and Eclipse. These included: - Jumping around code with clicks on functions - The code completion with verbose JavaDoc/comment details - The profiling and debugger tools were supper easy to use - Automatic Maven dependency management resolutions

vkaku 8y ago

My beef with Java 11 has been that the detection of Java.dll has not been perfect for Program Data\Oracle\JavaPath, the IDE installers and common executables. Did Oracle break something with JDK 11?

ykevinator 8y ago

It was the best rails ide.

yakubin 8y ago

What is the difference between netbeans.org and netbeans.apache.org?

badsectoracula 8y ago

I wish they had an installer and a bundle with JDK that did everything automatically, as Sun used to provide back in the day. I mean, sure, it isn't much of a deal to go to netbeans.org, go to apache.netbeans.org, download netbeans, uncompress it somewhere, go in the bin folder, doubleclick on the netbeans64.exe, get a weird message about jdk 1.8 not found, go to adoptopenjdk.org, wtf, google, go to adoptopenjdk.net, answer one million questions so they give you one link instead of providing a page of all versions available, download the linked zip file, uncompress it somewhere, go to system settings->advanced->whatever->path->dialog->whatever to edit the jdk to path, go back to wherever you had netbeans64, double click it, get same weird message about jdk 1.8 not found (why doesn't it ask me??), go back to the netbeans download page to see if there is any info anywhere, go to netbeans github site, look for the source code of the netbeans launcher, read the code to see that the launcher uses a configuration file under ..\etc, edit the configuration file to make it point to the JDK location, try again running netbeans64.exe, finally have it working, right-drag-drop the exe to the desktop, rename the shortcut to Netbeans and finally wonder where the world went wrong. Sure, not much of a deal, but i don't know, it looks kinda sloppy to me and i'd like a proper installer. (ps. just because this is kinda sorta negative, doesn't mean i dislike netbeans, it is just that i don't have anything positive to say that isn't already said... well, ok, here is a bit of positiveness: i don't write java often anymore, but when i do, i prefer netbeans because i like how simple it feels)

hestefisk 8y ago

I used Netbeans to develop EJB3 based web applications about 10 years ago on top of JBoss. At that time it was superior to IntelliJ in terms of code generation, templates, config support and others. It is not the most beautiful UX, but it works.