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

Package managers and installers are for putting stuff into system-wide
locations, IMHO.
I wouldn't want my host's package manager to control the Java Platforms
that are
available to my IDE. The Java Platform that I want to use for my IDE isn't
the one
I necessarily want to use on the host as such.

Javadocs:  I suggest it to be optional whether user wants to download
Javadocs bundle too.
Personally I like to have them locally as it is slightly faster than
looking them up
from http://docs.oracle.com and I can access them even while offline. Right
now the process
to get the JDK *with* the locally installed Javadoc in an unnecessary
two-step procedure.

Sources:  Yeah. Wouldn't it be great if Oracle would publish the Java
source bundles
somewhere for easy download. Alas, they don't. For the moment the only
procedure
that I know of is to go http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk8u/jdk8u/jdk/ and
download sources
for the tag relating to the JDK you are using. Finding out what is the
appropriate
tag is also not obvious, but can be figured out by looking at the URL text
when you
download your JDK from java.sun.com. For example for JDK 8u121 you would
want
build 13. After you download you need to re-organize the content of the
downloaded
ZIP file to be in a structure that the IDE will understand and then finally
you'll need
to attach it to the appropriate Java Platform entry in the IDE. Not for the
faint of heart.

/Peter


On Sun, Feb 5, 2017 at 11:40 AM, Emilian Bold <[email protected]>
wrote:

> 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
>