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Optimize with a SATA RAID Storage Solution
Range of capacities as low as $1250 per TB. Ideal if you currently rely on servers/disks/JBODs
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I checked in with Sun's NetBeans evangelist Tim Boudreau on what he considers to be the most important new features in NetBeans 6.5, and what's ahead for NetBeans.
Q: What would you say are the most important new features in NetBeans 6.5?
Tim Boudreau: I can think of my favorite new features; most of them sound dull since they're things that let me type less to get what I want. Probably my favorite sounds really silly: being able to type CTRL+SHIFT+; to append a semicolon to the current line, to insert a new, properly indented line below the line I'm on, and to move the caret there (all that in one keystroke).
Boudreau also mentioned NetBeans 6.5's beefed-up support for non-Java (PHP, HTML, JavaScript, Ruby, and Python) development.
Q: Can you give us a timeline of new NetBeans releases for 2009, along with a glimpse into new features they'll include?
Tim Boudreau: The best way to get a glimpse is to download a development build (hint, hint)! Two features that are coming along nicely and will be of interest to Java developers are:Larger-scale changes in NetBeans 7.0 (or should we just say "netbeans.next"?) are things like support for JavaFX and Python: we are continuing to add to the list of languages NetBeans works really well with and reach new audiences. A good way to keep up-to-date on new things as they're added is to use NetBeans Twitter.
- Automatic Projects: This plugin will recognize any directory with a build script as a project, analyze what the build script does (it's even usable in wild scenarios like generating some sources and compiling them as a build phase), and set up your classpath, code completion, etc. with no configuration necessary. You can get this from the update center and try it out right now.
- Compile-on-save: A lot of developers have asked for this, but actually creating this feature was complicated by one of the benefits of NetBeans: it uses Apache Ant under the hood for its project infrastructure. With NetBeans 7, compile-on-save will be included, and it does save time on recompilation.
A review of 2008's JVM-oriented developments reveals Java becoming more of a platform-centric technology and less of a language-centric one. While many worry that the evolution of the Java language has slowed (JDK 7 will bring a few small language changes, but apparently nothing significant), the JVM itself is undergoing a renaissance of innovation.
In January 2008, Sun initiated the Da Vinci Machine project, also known as the Multi Language Virtual Machine. This project aims to introduce a JVM that supports dynamically typed languages efficiently. This support includes invokedynamic, a JVM instruction that allows method invocation to rely on dynamic type checking.
Because Da Vinci needs input from the dynamic language community to help guide its development, JVM engineers from Sun hosted
the three-day JVM Language Summit at Sun's Santa Clara campus in September. On the first day, Principal Engineer Mark Reinhold stated that invokedynamic will be part of the JVM, starting with JDK 7.