First Impressions
First off, NetBeans started slowly on a P4 3GHz HT with 512MB of RAM (the recommended is 1GB of RAM). The native look and feel (on Windows) is attractive and there's an integrated debugger with essential features, like the ability to set breakpoints and watches, step through code, watch and modify variables, and probe the callstack. These are the most common features required in a debugger.
Creating a new Java Application project was easy. NetBeans creates an Ant build file automatically, which is a pretty neat feature,as then the project can be ported outside NetBeans without any changes.
The editor has good code completion feature, however it does not respond quickly (possible again due to the low RAM). Decreasing the 'Delay of completion window before automatic popup option in the options dialog did not make much difference.
I wrote a simple HelloWorld application and then did a build on the project. A .jar file was automatically created, which freed me from having to to export it myself, like in other development environments.
NetBeans 5.5 includes CVS support by default. I was able to execute all of the typical CVS commands from the IDE. You can enable subversion support by downloading a plug-in through the Update Center. Similarly, other Version Control Systems are supported using a Generic Version Control System plug-in.
Most of your project's information is organized through the use of windows, the most important of which (Projects, Files, Runtime, and Navigator) are open by default. I really liked the Runtime window, which lists out local servers and databases. You can start, stop, or restart any integrated server or connect to any database using this window. Once connected to any database, you can execute standard SQL statements using an integrated SQL editor. This is quite useful when you need to rapidly prototype applications.
Another nifty little feature is the Unit test code generation. The suite can generate unit tests automatically and make default code implementations for the tests. There does not seem to be much in the way of refactoring support—at least in comparison to other development environments.
Next, I developed a simple Swing GUI and found that it is as easy touse as the Visual Basic environment in Visual Studio. It is quite friendly and I did not have to think about layout managers and constraints, etc. NetBeans probably has one of the finest Java GUI development tools available.
I then developed a simple HelloWorld EJB 3.0 application with a Web-based client using Struts 1.2.9. It was quite simple and I had to write very little code manually—most of it was auto-generated. The application itself was quite simple and therefore the generated code was mostly sufficient and did not require any changes. Even so, I think NetBeans will reduce a lot of development effort for complex applications by reducing this kind of manual work.
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