Re: NetBeans IDE better at Java Platform mgmt than competion?

I guess you have different needs because I wound't want to use
NetBeans for those tasks.

Checking the JDK latest version is a matter of the package manager and such.

I believe NetBeans already loads Javadocs from the internet if
available. Getting them locally isn't something I would want NetBeans
to do custom.

Maybe OpenJDK should publish the sources/javadocs in a Maven
repository and NetBeans Maven support would almost-natively support
that.


--emi


On Sun, Feb 5, 2017 at 12:22 PM, Peter Hansson
<[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> NetBeans IDE should be the #1 when it comes to Java development. Users of
> IDE's should feel that NetBeans is closer to the Oracle JDK than any other
> IDE.
>
>
> Here's a suggestion.
>
> As a Java developer I keep my development environment fairly up-to-date with
> the latest JDK packages from Oracle's site. I also quite often dive into the
> JDK source and I occasionally test new JDKs and I'm active in various JDK
> related settings (SO, JDK mailing lists, etc). The NetBeans IDE doesn't do
> anything extra to cater for the likes of me compared to the competion, at
> least not when it comes to Java Platform management.
>
>
> Imagine a NetBeans IDE plugin that would:
>
>
> * Lets you get and install latest JDK package from Oracle (of course only
> after having accepted license first)
>
> * Checking for latest JDK and potentially giving warning to IDE user that a
> newer JDK is available.
>
> * When installing, then optionally installing the docs package too. (this is
> a hassle to do manually)
>
> * When installing, then optionally installing the full source too. Now, this
> is REALLY a hassle to do currently as the only way to obtain the JDK source
> is via Mercurial (OpenJDK). The source that is included with the Oracle JDK
> is for kids, it only includes the JSR classes, not the interesting stuff,
> i.e. the actual implementation. I appreciate the difference between OpenJDK
> and Oracle JDK but I do not understand why this has to be so difficult.
>
> * Being able to change - from within the plugin - the IDE's own JDK. This
> will require that the plugin has write access to the IDE's conf file, so
> this one may not be easy to solve.
>
>
> All of this should be possible from within the IDE.  I understand that this
> cannot be done without some cooperation from the rest of Oracle, e.g. the
> Oracle Java team would have to expose an URL for checking for latest
> version, and so on.
>
> NB: the word "install" in the above should often be read as "unpack".
> Perhaps the default may even be to install new Java Platforms into a private
> location only used by NetBeans?. Java devs are rarely interested in
> something messing with their Windows Registry and what not.
>
> I think this could be a killer feature of the NB IDE. At least it will
> signal that the NB IDE has more of an affinity with Oracle JDK than any
> other IDE.
>
> (end of random thoughts)
>
> /Peter