stillhacking

Thinking about it earlier today, I have been using NetBeans before (or after actually) it was called NetBeans.  I say after, because I remember using Forte but it was called NetBeans before and after Forte.  To put that into some perspective, some years ago I was at a JavaOne (2002?) at a Meet the Forte Tools Experts session.  NetBeans has come along way since those days but I recall seeing a lot of promise which has been a reality for a long time now. The first thing I liked, and still like, about NetBeans was that it has a familiar look.  This may be because I was a long time Delphi and JBuilder user, both Borland IDEs, and NetBeans was, at least to some extent, inspired by Delphi's IDE style and functionality.  NetBeans feels natural to me and I think it is generally very approachable for new developers. Out-of-the-box functionality is my second reason for liking NetBeans.  I install the full version of NetBeans on OS X, Linux, and Windows and I am ...

The Intellij  IDEA IDE from JetBrains is one of those tools I have wanted to like for years now but it seems I am coming at things from a different perspective and so far it has not worked for me. I take it for a spin now and then (purchased licenses several times over the years to go beyond a short evaluation) and I thought the recent release of 13 signaled it was time to try it again. I downloaded the free Community Edition.  I decided to create a JavaFX application as my first action.  I tried it on a MacBook which happen to have a recent build of Java 8 on it.  IDEA found the JDK (this may have been from a previous installation) OK but the app would not run. The Fatal Error that greeted me after I clicked the Run button was:  unable to find package java.lang in classpath or bootclasspath My correction was to remove and add back the SDK.  (File -> Project Structure -> SDKs)  I'm not sure how extreme this might be considered by IDEA lo...

I really do enjoy my job (for the most part) and staying current with technology, while certainly not totally attainable, is something I enjoying trying to achieve. SOA, NoSQL databases, new(ish) mobile development are a few of the technology spaces that grab my regular interest these days.  Every now and then something comes along that literally makes me fire off a positive email, tweet, blog entry, or comment to colleagues. I am very much aware of the future potential of cloud IDEs and codenvy is not something that's been off my radar.  A short while ago I got an email from codenvy that made me say "wow, now that's cool." Check it out...codenvy will now let you create an app, from a template, instantly, and without even signing in. They have built technology which creates an app, from a template, in a temporary workspace faster than some folks can get their favorite IDE to (fully) load.  In my case that may well depend upon how many projects I tend to leave ...