Gone for a little while...

I am going to be very busy with school for the next little while so sorry if you won't hear from me...It is taking me a long time to get a new microphone and server so hopefully they will be available soon. On a side note NetBeans 5.5 is awesome and i recomend you go try it (it is still in Q-Builds). Anyway i will try and blog as often as possible.

Quiet

Over the past week I have been pretty quiet (I guess you could say lazy). I have been on march break and have been just loving it! I have been spending most of my time learning more about developing NetBeans modules. I very much like this type of work. Anyway there has been a lot going on in the NetBeans world (C++/C pack, enterprise pack, ect..). I looking forward to the 5.5 and 6.0 releases of NetBeans. They will be great!! Anyway it is almost 1:00 AM and I have to wake up in the morning so this is going to be cut a little short. Now for a short update...I am still waiting to get a server (it should happen this week hopefully) and that mean I will be start up my podcast. About the flash demo I said I was going to have ready for last week, it never happened because the audio is not very good quality so I am going to pick up a new mic and re-record.

Eclipse (The Super Power in the IDE War) is Having Trouble Keeping up with the Fast Pace of NetBeans

Ian Skerrett has shared false information regarding Eclipse and NetBeans. Eclipse said that NetBeans use went down 0.2% and that they are still at the top of the on going IDE war. The results where based on a online survey of 621 developers. Below is a graph of the amount of unique accesses to the NetBeans update center. (note: each NetBeans IDE has it's own unique ID and is not effected by DHCP). The hits to the NetBeans update center does not include people who are behind firewalls or people who disable their update functionality in NetBeans or people not connected to the internet.

Anyway I don't want to pick on eclipse...They do have a great product with some (very few) features that beat NetBeans. One thing where NetBeans is far ahead is in it's GUI builder Matisee. Btw a new plugin is coming out for eclipse that integrate the amazing NetBeans Matisse GUI builder. You can check this out here. This brings up the topic of how Elcipse can't even think up there own idea's they have to steal the code from NetBeans. Any way there are quite a few other reasons NetBeans is better that Elcipse (Swing vs. SWT, Mobility Pack, the new enterprise pack, Ant build system, ect...). At the end of the day it is good that eclipse is around because it let's developers choose what tool they would like to use. Competition is a good thing because it make tools better. Don't expect the IDE war to end anytime soon!!

NetBeans has a lot of momentum and has came leaps and bounds from 3.x and even 4.1. Don't expect NetBeans to slow down!!

For more information visit: http://blogs.sun.com/roller/page/roumen?Entry=netbeans_growth_questioned#comments
http://cld.blog-city.com/what_form_does_success_take__a_clear_picture_of_success_with.htm
http://ianskerrett.blogspot.com/2006/03/eclipse-gains-market-share-in-2005.html

Groovy

Today I tried out Groovy. I was very impressed with how I could use a scripting language with and on top of the Java platform. I was using the new updated nbm's from project Coyote (the nbm's were updated to 5.0 by Roumen Strobl). Project Coyote has basic support for Groovy and Jython but need many more features (code completion, syntax highlighting, ect...). Some day I would love to see java with a dynamic language of it's own and groovy is looking like a great choice.

Photo's from Mt. St.Anne Quebec

Beuatifull painting on an old building in Quebec City

One of my favourite parts of the part at Mt. St. Anne

Me Coming out of a Chocolate shop in Quebec City

Chalets in front of Mt. St. Anne

Place where we stayed

Picture From the top of the Mountain

the main gondala at Mt. St. Anne

Blue Skies infront of the biscotte (a small eatery)

Road leading up to Mt. St. Anne

I'm Back

I am back from my holiday with my family. It was a great relaxing time and very fun. I will have some pics posted once I get a-hold of some from my dad's digital camera. This week I should be able to get my UML demo finished. I will also have a new server and will have it set in about one and a half weeks. Along with this I will be starting my own podcast. The first episode will be release probably by the end of the month. So stay tuned for some new things coming on rekahsoft.blogspot.com.

Short Update

I am going away on a family trip for this week so I probably will not be blogging but when I come back I will be releasing a demo about the new UML support in NetBeans 5.5 Preview. Also I will be able to host my own files because I am getting a server when I come back!! So be ready for my first demo. I would love to hear your feed-back when the time comes.

NetBeans 5.5 Preview Available

Today NetBeans 5.5 Preview became available. As I do with all new NetBeans things I downloaded it and gave it a try...I have been waiting for quite a while for UML support built into NetBeans. It seamed to be pretty stable already which is cool. One thing I noticed was that Java Studio Creator functionality was not yet implemented. This is not much of a problem because I do not do much with j2EE (although I am very interested in learning new things). I included a screen shot of the UML support in NetBeans 5.5 Preview (a boring Windows XP shot) showing a little demo UML diagram (Note: don't comment on the actual diagram; it is just to show something in the image). It is definitely going to be nice to have the great features of Java Studio Creator and Java Studio Enterprise in NetBeans. Now all that will be needed is big fixes (especially in the UML support from JSE) a few more features and enhancements and finnaly the biggy...support for more languages. What an exciting time for NetBeans!!

All i can say is WOW!!

I tried the new Mac with the intel core duo...and all i can say is WOW. It is so fast. The first thing i did was download NetBeans (version 5.0) and see how it worked. I was amazed...I am definitly going to get a MacBook Pro for my next laptop!! All i can say is ... WOW!!

Almost there...

I've been busy at work figuring out a solution to my web space problem. I'm going to be getting a server in the next few weeks and I already have many plannes for it. I'll be creating I HTTP server so I can host my podcast (the first episode will be out in approximately a month). I will also be creating a CVS portions so I can host my current projects. The server will also be used as part of my home network which does not need to be discussed here. so be ready for flash demos and my new podcast in the next month. I will also be producing more blogs (approximately a blog a day) and a podcast a week.

The RekahSoft Side Project

I've been working on a 2-D game engine for little while and it will eventually become my end of the year project. Aside the engine will be an application that lets people with little to none programming experience create a game. It will generate all the code needed on NetBeans because many of the tools are ready to use. The project is most of all for my personal enjoyment, and is done after my NetBeans module (ITM) work.

Time Management Module (ITM)

Sorry I have a blog for a long time,I had really been slowed down by my broken arm. I would like to give a update on my time management module. First off it looks like i will not be the only person involved in this project; which is good because two brains are better than one. We're still in process of design and coming up with an appropriate feature set. So if you are looking for Time Management module in NetBeans now is a time to submit features you'd be interested in.I'm still working on getting webspace and hopefully I find something meet my needs. In approximately a month ITM (integrated Time manager [Time Management module for NetBeans]) will have early releases out. So give some input on features that you would like to see included and we'll see what we can do.

NetBeans 5.0 Is HERE!!

After a few months of hard work from the NetBeans team and community they are able to release the latest and greatest version of NetBeans. With many new features that you can't find in any other IDE. NetBeans is completely open-source and still wins over competition. Wow, great job NetBeans!!

Programming one arm short

Yesterday i broke my right arm snowboarding. I have snowboarded for 4 years and it is one of my favorite pass times besides programming an other computer related things. This is not good because it happens to be very hard to type with one hand (not mentioning very slow). I have voice recognition software but it does not work very good for programming. Although i have got it to work pretty well and am improving the quardination in my left hand. There are a few plus's to it though; I have lots of time to read more programming books and learn more. In a week or so the doctor said i will be able to type with my broken arm which is really nice. Just bcause i broke my arm doesn't mean i am going to stop my module development. So hopefully everything will go well and i will be healed up in six to eight weeks.

Another Update

Sorry i have not blogged lately, i have been very busy doing school work. I try to have a blog a day and i almost am ready to have media on my blog. Sorry for the long wait... I will have my article about Java and NetBeans on linux out very soon.

Java Studio Creator 2 Available

I do not have much experiance in the field of J2EE Programming but recently i donloaded Java Studio Creator 2. It is very simple and even though i know very little about J2EE programming i made a simple check-out. There are many new comprehensive features in Java Studio Creator 2, and the best thing is it is built off of NetBeans! Although it is built off of NetBeans 4.1 as Java Studio Enterprise is, and as i have said many times in previous posts i would love to see the tree sun IDE's built off of NetBeans come together (and still be open-source). You can download Java Studio Creator 2 here.

Update

Sorry i have not written lately, i have been very busy. Good news is i am close to solving hosting problems. More good news is NetBeans RC 2 is out!! It includes some crutical bug fixes. I am very exceited for the NetBeans 5.0 Release as many of you are as well. Be prepared for my first podcast and some other media this week or possibly next as well as an article on Java and NetBeans on Linux.

NetBeans 5.0 RC!!

Sorry i haven't writen very many atricles this week and last week...I have been swamped with work. This will be a short article but soon i will have some new article (i am preparing a podcast [it should be done by next week]).

I have been using NetBeans 5.0 as you probably know. I have enjoyed the amazing improvement in stability. My new pass time is coding NetBeans Moduals. I have been reading the tutorials and have made a search bar like the "quick search" in Mozilla FireFox. I am now working on a "Time Management" Modual. So you will soon be seing a download link on my blog.

Fun Java Fact #1

Have you ever wanted more solutions for your program? Say the pragram is to be run as an applet but the user would like to download it and use it outside a browser. I was thinking over how to do this so i made a simple program that operates as a applet and a application. This can be very usefull because users can use your program out of a browser when they are not online. It does not take very much to do this. Just a little flexability. The program is not a tough one at all; just a JButton with a label saying how many times the JButton has been clicked. Also note it is a Swing applet/application. Here is my code:
/*
* SwingAppletAndApplication.java
* Created on: Friday January 13, 2006 at 9:10
*
* @author Rekahsoft.blogspot.com
* @programmer Collin Doering
*/
import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.applet.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class SwingAppletAndApplication extends JApplet implements java.awt.event.ActionListener {

//create the components to be used in the applet/application
private JButton btn;
private JLabel label;
//create a variable to keep track of the amount of button clicks
private int timesClicked = 0;

boolean DEBUG = true;

//create a constructor so that the main method can create an istance of it because it can not call the init method because it is not static
public SwingAppletAndApplication() { //default constructor
//init variables
btn = new JButton("Click me");
btn.addActionListener(this); //add an action listener to the JButton
label = new JLabel("I've been clicked: " + timesClicked + " times!!");

// Lay out the GUI (using box layout)
Container contentPane = getContentPane();
contentPane.setLayout(new BoxLayout(contentPane, BoxLayout.X_AXIS));
contentPane.add(label);
contentPane.add(btn);
label.setAlignmentX(Component.LEFT_ALIGNMENT);
btn.setAlignmentX(Component.RIGHT_ALIGNMENT);
}

//init method overrode from java.applet.Applet
public void init() {
new SwingAppletAndApplication(); //show the gui in a applet
}

// Action method -- executed when the user clicks the button.
public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent e) {
timesClicked++;
label.setText("I've been clicked: " + timesClicked + " times!!");
}

//main method - the starting point in a application for the JVM
public static void main(String args[]) {
//Schedule a job for the event-dispatching thread:
//creating and showing this application's GUI.
javax.swing.SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
JFrame frame = new JFrame("Application form"); //create a JFrame to show the
frame.getContentPane().add(new SwingAppletAndApplication()); //Add the GUI to the application
frame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);
frame.pack();
frame.setVisible(true); //set the JFrame visible
}
});
}

}
I explain the code with coments through out it (sorry i could not format it so it looks nice). Give me some feedback on what you think and if you already knew you could do this. I thaught it was pretty cool because i had never heard of this.

NetBeans 5.0 RC is here!!

After what seems to have been a very long time, NetBeans 5.0 RC has been released!! The wait was well worth it. Many improvements have been made to NetBeans 5.0 RC. To see more about the bug fixes and other features go to the following. I will be playing with NetBeans 5.0 RC, NetBeans Mobility 5.0 RC and the 5.0 RC Profiler after i finish some work. Best luck in your NetBeans 5.0 RC development ;)

P.S: Great Work NetBeans Team/community (i am also a part of the community [rekahsoft@netbeans.org] but i do not contribute many other things other than bug reports [although that will change])

Note: I have almost got my server/solution issues fixed so i will be able to get media and other thing alike on my blog.