Open source Java projects: NetBeans plugins
NetBeans plugins let you do all kinds of things you can't do with NetBeans alone, and they're open source. Jeff Friesen introduces five useful plugins, then gets you started with creating your own plugins for NetBeans 6.5.
Jeff Friesen, December 2008

Year in Review: The Java tools roundup
As Agile techniques become more mainstream, tools for the software development lifecycle are adding new features and optimizations to make developers happy. Find out what's new in build automation frameworks, testing tools, and IDEs, with this year-end review from Java Power Tools author John Ferguson Smart.
John Ferguson Smart, December 2008

Eye on multicore: RapidMind and JetBrains
New releases from JetBrains and RapidMind seek to address the need for parallel programming support in a multicore world. Paul Krill reports on newly released IntelliJ IDEA v8 and RapidMind's contribution to the LLVM Compiler Infrastructure and OpenCL standard.
Paul Krill, November 2008

Jump into JavaFX, Part 1: JavaFX Preview SDK
Client-side developers are poised to take the plunge into JavaFX, so why wait for the official release? Get a running jump with Jeff Friesen's easy introduction to the JavaFX Preview SDK, with NetBeans 6.1 and Project Nile.
Jeff Friesen, November 2008

New Eclipse member looks to rival Visual Studio
Maven creator Jason van Zyl joins the Eclipse foundation to lead development of a plugin combining Maven and Eclipse for greater usability.
Paul Krill, July 2008

Low marks for Eclipse 'integrated everything environment'
Still tops for tools integration, a recent survey shows Eclipse losing ground to other IDEs in ease of use, debugging, documentation, and built application performance.
Paul Krill, April 2008

Eclipse IDE due for a trim?
Amid the talk about Eclipse 4, due in two years, Eclipse Test & Performance Tools Platform Lead Oliver Cole raised the question of how much one IDE can do well, at EclipseCon 2008.
Paul Krill, March 2008

Eclipse 3.3 or NetBeans 6.0?
Learn what differentiates these two free, open source Java IDEs and how they compare out of the box, then use Andrew's rating chart to decide which IDE could best meet your needs.
Andrew Binstock, March 2008

BEA touts Federation, adds Eclipse to IDE
July 10, 2006—Customers hoping to taste the fruit of BEA's acquisition of Plumtree Software almost a year ago will have to wait a bit longer: a planned upgrade to its WebLogic Portal server will not include Plumtree technology.
Paul Krill, July 2006

NetBeans attempts to eclipse Eclipse
NetBeans 5.0 is an intuitive, well-designed Java development platform with superb collaboration capabilities and several remarkable features, including the new Matisse GUI builder. The limited number of plug-ins hamper wider acceptance, however, and some of the new features have rough edges.
Andrew Binstock, April 2006

Java developer tool backs Ajax
January 30, 2006—Ajax (asynchronous JavaScript and XML) programming figures prominently in a free upgrade of the Sun Java Studio Creator developer tool being released by Sun Microsystems.
Paul Krill, January 2006

Become an Eclipse hotkey showoff
The Eclipse IDE is becoming so popular that it's even showing up on many job descriptions. However, because it is so feature-bloated, knowing where to begin proves difficult. In this article, Sam Brodkin shares his most-used Eclipse features. He also notes the associated hotkey combinations that will get your fingers moving so fast, you'll be suspected of playing video games at work.
Sam Brodkin, August 2005

Can JSF speed up Web application development?
JavaServer Faces was designed to help developers quickly develop Web applications, but does JSF deliver? In this article, Steve Small looks for an answer to that question by experimenting with Sun Microsystems' Java Studio Creator, an IDE based on JavaServer Faces, to see how quickly he can build a Web application.
Steve Small, July 2005

Sun's Project Rave draws rave reviews
May 17, 2004—Java Studio Creator, the purported easy-to-use Java development tool due from Sun Microsystems this summer, drew raves from some early users last week, albeit with reservations about the availability of components.
Paul Krill, May 2004

Novell's exteNd still a work in progress
Novell's exteNd Application Server is Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.3-compatible and includes the exteNd Workbench IDE. Although Workbench and exteNd Application Server 5.0 are good products overall, they need polish.
Rick Grehan, December 2003

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Best of 2008: A developer's list

JW blogger Dustin Marx names his top 10 technology events of 2008. Highlights include updates to Java SE 6, runtime support in OpenLaszlo 4.2, and the clash of the titans that occurred early in the year, when Sun acquired MySQL on the same day that Oracle announced its acquisition of BEA. No two lists are alike and it's not too late: What were your top 10 for 2008?

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