NetBeans Weekly News Issue #4

------------------------------------------------------------------------
NetBeans Weekly News, a newsletter for the NetBeans community
Issue #4 - February 26, 2001
URL: http://www.netbeans.org/newsletter/2001-02-26.html

Interested in becoming a newsletter editor ?  We're always looking
for editors to help out - contact [email protected]

Please send news contributions to [email protected]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

There have been quite a few interesting activities in NetBeans land last
week.  The current term of the governance board is expiring.  Please
review the document describing the role of the board at
http://www.netbeans.org/governance.html and send in your nominations.
Currently we have three non-Sun nominees

    Iwan Eising (nominated by Robert Grieg, +1 Trung)
    Robert Newby (nominated by Robert Grieg)
    Robert Grieg (nominated by Trung)

There is no nominee for the Sun chair so far.  See the thread started by
Keri on nbusers

    Subject: Governance Board Elections
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbusers/msg04006.html


Petr Hrebejk has been elected as the release manager for NetBeans IDE
3.2.  In this role he will coordinate us in the efforts to get the
upcoming 3.2 release out of the door.  Jesse Glick, our CVS expert will
help Petr with the CVS technical issues.
    
    Subject: ANN: Petr Hrebejk is the release manager for NetBeans IDE 3.2
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbannounce/msg00018.html


Since fastjavac has some serious bugs we have switched to use the
external javac as the default java compiler.

    Subject: Fastjavac as default compiler
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbusers/msg04035.html

    Subject: Serious fastjavac bug
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbdev/msg04226.html


Vincent Brabant is working on localizing NetBeans into French.  He even
believes the work can be done in time for NB 3.2 release.  This would be
a great news.

    Subject: internationalize module
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbusers/msg04074.html


The (partially) new and improved form editor has been merged into our
CVS trunk.  The merge has user visible effect in dev build 132 and
beyond.

    Subject: Merging the new form editor to development trunk
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbusers/msg04028.html

Tomas Pavek also posted a message listing open issues in the form
editor, most of them are UI related, to nbui.  If you are using or
interested in the form editor, make sure to read Tomas' message and add
your comment

    Subject: Open issues in new Form Editor
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbui/msg01318.html


We start using badged icons in the IDE.  See Svata's message on nbui
about how he is badging java class nodes, he is also asking for
comments.

    Subject: Badged icons in the Explorer
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbui/msg01254.html


We know for quite some time that the Debugger API is not powerful enough
for plugging additional debuggers into the IDE.  Some works in term of
code refactoring and thinking about the API are in progress.  Jan
Jancura posted a long list of requirements on the new debugger API

    Subject: Requirements for new DebuggerCore / Debugger API:
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbdev/msg04103.html


There is a long thread on nbdev which started with a proposal to remove
parser.jar from {ide.home}/lib/ext but has turned its attention to the
practice of gratuitously adding 3rd-party jar files into lib/ext.
Module developers please take notes

    Subject: parser.jar library
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbdev/msg04076.html

    Subject: Let's kill lib/ext/random.jar (was: Re: [nbdev] parser.jar
library)

    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbdev/msg04123.html


There are several discussions going on nbui.  Ian Formanek is trying to
reach a conclusion on where is the right place for the Version Control
menu.  The majority of people who sent in comments are agreeing that
version control deserves a top-level menu of its own.

    Subject: UI CHANGE OPINIONS REQUEST - Version Control menu (was
             Version Control menu (was: accessibility of Mount CVS Wizard))
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbui/msg01279.html


A huge discussion about redesigning the Java Class Wizard is taking
place on nbui and nbusers.  If you're interested, make sure to follow on
both lists

    Subject: Asking for help with redesign of Java Class Wizard
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbui/msg01264.html
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbusers/msg04139.html


Dirk Ruiz posted his evaluation of the current state of MDI on nbui

    Subject: Quick MDI evaluation
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbui/msg01266.html


The great Setup Wizard debate is still alive and well on nbui.  We are
nowhere near a closure.  Jan Rojcek has made a nice summary
    
    Subject: Setup Wizard ? - summary
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbui/msg01222.html


Yarda has created two documents titled "Persistent instances" and
"Toolbars" to help cut down the confusion regarding the way how the IDE
deals with persistent instances especially with toolbars.  His message
which contains links to these two documents

    Subject: [nbdev] Tutorials - Persistent instances & toolbars
    URL: http://www.netbeans.org/www-nbdev/msg04159.html


Bug summary, details at: <http://qa.netbeans.org/bugzilla/table.html>
                        bugs / enhancements
    New last week:       101 / 10
    Resolved last week:  131 /  5
    Fixed last week:      86 /  5
    Current totals:      583 / 209
These numbers include stable modules and Dev/Current versions only.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
This issue of NetBeans Weekly News was brought to you by Trung Duc Tran.
The next editor will be Pavel Buzek. (New volunteers are welcome!)
Please send news contributions to [email protected]
------------------------------------------------------------------------