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GNU offers a new kind of Java IDE

The Free Builder Project is 100 percent pure Java, nonproprietary, and free

By Mariva H. Aviram, JavaWorld.com, 07/01/98

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Seasoned programmers and hackers are well aware that often the best things -- or at least potentially the best things -- are free. If you're interested in a new integrated development environment (IDE) for Java, consider avoiding shrinkwrap, price tags, and encrypted proprietary code. Instead, consider the Free Builder Project, a public-domain Java IDE licensed under the Free Software Foundation's GNU's Not Unix! (GNU) General Public License (GPL). As with many GNU projects, the Free Builder Project (hereafter referred to as FB) software and documentation are available for free. And since the source code is publicly available, if you want something added to or changed in the software, you have an opportunity to do it yourself.

FB currently offers a working prototype for Linux and Windows 95/NT that includes a customizable visual tool interface, a text editor that supports compiler error messages, a compiler module, and debugging support. Some components and features currently in development include a project manager, a background parser, a class analyzer, a multithreaded debugger, a visual component builder, JavaBean support, and support for mpEDIT -- which adds syntax coloring and enables the use of EditBeans. (An EditBean is a a simple editor bean that returns strings and processes text; see Resources for more on these.)

Free Builder, a working prototype of an open-source Java IDE, provides a visual interface that can be customized
(Click for full-size image)



The origins of Free Builder

A team of volunteer Java programmers has been working on FB for over a year. The Free Builder Project was initiated by Ivelin Atanasoff Ivanov, a resident of Sofia, Bulgaria, and currently the software development department manager for Macrotex -- a U.S.-Bulgarian company developing specialized security software packages for Fortune 500 companies and the mass market. Ivanov started FB in February 1997, right after Sun Microsystems first published JDK 1.1. Ivanov organized the FB Web site and developed the first public version v.0.4.97, which was released on April 1, 1997.

Then, in November 1997, George Petkov and Peter Radkov, both working at Vanand Ltd. in Sofia, formed a new FB team and reengineered the entire Free Builder Project from scratch. In March of this year, Petkov and Radkov published the first screenshots of the new FB in development, which generated significant interest from the Java development community -- 20,000 downloads since this version first appeared. Specifically, developers requested that the source code be made available to the public.

FB promises to eventually deliver a worthy Java IDE, but before you get excited enough to download FB and get to work, be warned that it is still in a very early stage of development. Bugs and glitches are numerous, yet often simple to fix. In fact, the current FB code is only a prototype for the final product -- so downloading, configuring, and using FB is like being in the alpha-testing lab.

The FB development process

According to George Petkov, project leader at Vanand Ltd. in Sofia, FB is currently a working prototype -- a basis upon which new tools must be built, added, and modified. For example, FB includes a JavaBeans palette but no visual design tool, and the editor requires a lot of work. Like many GNU projects, FB represents an "as we go" development process. Instead of a top-down, initial-blueprints-to-final-testing-stage approach, the FB developers decide what needs to be done next, develop the feature, test it, and move on to the next decision. This flexible approach makes for powerful development, often covering the needs of many developers instead of following marketing trends and designing for profit. There are two disadvantages: that there is no official production schedule, and product support is shaky at best.

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Resources
  • Free Builder site http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/
  • The FB Web site includes:
  • FB download page http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/download.html
  • FB mailing list information http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/mailing_list.html
  • The Free Builder Hacker's Guide http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/fbhack.html
  • The Free Builder Architecture v.0.4.97 http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/fb-spec.html
  • FB specifications http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/specifications.html
  • FB current state of development http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/current_state.html
  • FB progress log http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/progress.html
  • FB development goals http://nisoft.orbitel.bg/freebuilder/future_goals.html
  • The Free Builder CVS server accelerates the development process http://freebuilder.acc.umu.se
  • The Free Software Foundation's GNU's Not Unix! (GNU) Project offers software with freely available, nonproprietary source code http://www.gnu.org/
  • Java Lobby, a Java advocacy group, mentions FB in its Java news http://www.javalobby.org/javanews/jn003.html#freebuilder
  • mpEDIT adds syntax coloring and enables the use of EditBeans http://members.tripod.com/~mpTOOLS/index.html
  • For information on EditBeans, see http://members.tripod.com/~mpTOOLS/EditBeans.html