Submission: Participation in NetBeans Move the Needle Initiative

Link to Netbeans at bottom of

LINK: http://www.xoetrope.com/partners/partnerlist.php

WHO: Xoetrope
URL: http://www.xoetrope.com
WHAT: Kalideoscope, Carousel

Kalideoscope and Carousel are editors for the XUI rich-client framework. 
The tools allow NetBeans users to rapidly construct, build and text  XUI 
application via XML or Java. The XUI framework takes carry of much of 
the low level coding involved in building applications while reinforcing 
established design such as MVC and the separation of concerns to improve 
maintainability. Both XUI and Kalideoscope are open source tools while 
Carousel is a commercial tool that has many additional features 
including enhanced localization, debugging and diagnostics support plus 
extended libraries for comms, data access and more.






SURVEY:


    * What kind of an application did your organization build on top of
      NetBeans?

An extension - an editor for the XUI rich-client framework

    * Was NetBeans your only choice or was there any other Java software
      you had to choose from?

No, Eclipse, JBuilder etc...

    * Why did you choose NetBeans?

Did not like the use of SWT in Eclipse

    * What do you hope to get from using NetBeans?

A powerful base for building tools

    * Was/is NetBeans meeting your expectations?

Yes and no


    * Were there any challenges when using the NetBeans core?

Yes, poor and out-of-date documentation


    * What would you recommend to someone who would want to write on top
      of NetBeans?

Do not read the O'Reilly book - definitive guide, it's to out of date

    * What should NetBeans do to make it easier for developers to use
      the code?

List the modules to package relationships, it can be hard to find out 
which module contains a particular package

    * Do you ever use NetBeans? And if yes, what type of work you do
      with the IDE?

Application development

    * What do you think are the strongest attributes of NetBeans?

Open source, Java 5 support

    * Where do you think the IDE needs the most improvement?

Speed

    * How did you first hear about NetBeans?

The net

    * Were there any challenges when developing for NetBeans?

Very many, the whole naming convention could do with a cleanup or at 
least better documentation of the roles and relationships

    * What would you recommend to someone who would want to write a
      module for NetBeans?

Get the source for a working project (5.0 is much better, fortunately)

    * How long have you been using NetBeans? Were you using NetBeans
      before it acquired by Sun?

2 years or so, no.

    * What other open source projects have you been a part of? In what
      capacity?

Batik contributor, JBoss contributor