Netbeans

NetBeans IDE 8.1

NetBeans is a software development platform written in Java. The NetBeans Platform allows applications to be developed from a set of modular software components called modules. Applications based on the NetBeans Platform, including the NetBeans integrated development environment (IDE), can be extended by third party developers.

The NetBeans IDE is primarily intended for development in Java, but also supports other languages, in particular PHP, C/C++and HTML5.

NetBeans is cross-platform and runs on Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris and other platforms supporting a compatible JVM.

The NetBeans Team actively support the product and seek feature suggestions from the wider community. Every release is preceded by a time for Community testing and feedback. DOWNLOAD

History

NetBeans began in 1996 as Xelfi (word play on Delphi), a Java IDE student project under the guidance of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at Charles University in Prague. In 1997, Roman Staněk formed a company around the project and produced commercial versions of the NetBeans IDE until it was bought by Sun Microsystems in 1999. Sun open-sourced the NetBeans IDE in June of the following year. Since then, the NetBeans community has continued to grow. In 2010, Sun (and thus NetBeans) was acquired by Oracle.

NetBeans Platform

NetBeans screenshot

The NetBeans Platform is a framework for simplifying the development of Java Swing desktop applications. The NetBeans IDE bundle for Java SE contains what is needed to start developing NetBeans plugins and NetBeans Platform based applications; no additional SDK is required.

Applications can install modules dynamically. Any application can include the Update Center module to allow users of the application to download digitally signed upgrades and new features directly into the running application. Reinstalling an upgrade or a new release does not force users to download the entire application again.

The platform offers reusable services common to desktop applications, allowing developers to focus on the logic specific to their application. Among the features of the platform are:

• User interface management (e.g. menus and toolbars)
• User settings management
• Storage management (saving and loading any kind of data)
• Window management
• Wizard framework (supports step-by-step dialogs)
• NetBeans Visual Library
• Integrated development tools