I recently learned that the Open University uses the NetBeans IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to help teach Java programming. Having used JBuilder and BlueJ up to now and being quite happy with Blue J in particular but seeing room for improvement, I downloaded the latest version and had a look.It's Free
First things first, NetBeans is FREE! It is also supported by the excellent www.netbeans.org website which has lots of good tutorials for getting started and for doing those all important things like transferring your current Java projects into it's environment (see later)
Download
I downloaded the latest Beta version which comes in at 42MBs so not too large these days. Once the installation process was compete (very straightforward as you'd expect) I got down to the nitty gritty of what it looked like and I was pleasantly surprised. The design is clear and contemporary, unlike BlueJ which is a little dated now, and the important help tutorials are in the main window for all to see. Click on the screenshot below for a larger version...
Tutorials
After creating a new project and trying some simple code to see how the Build process was handled (see the last screenshot) I turned to the help section and worked my way through the 'Getting Started' tutorial. This showed how to create new projects and then run and troubleshoot them. The instructions were quite clear and the tutorial definitely helped my understanding of how to use the software.
What do I think?
The main advantage that NetBeans showed over BlueJ was the IDE layout with the different windows on the page showing all of the information required. BlueJ requires clicks here and there and opens new windows to display code which can get confusing at times. However, with NetBeans's layout the folder structure is clearly visible at all times as are the code and output windows making it quite a tidy application.
And just one more thing to mention, there's an excellent short cut for typing System.out.println! Just type 'sout'. Cool!
Try it
Try it yourself! Get it by going to http://www.netbeans.org/products/ide/.
