Re: Apache proposal for NetBeans

Hi, Geertjan.

I'm excited to hear about the Apache proposal. For one thing, I can't wait to see the NetBeans sources in git! :-)

The NetBeans Platform serves as one of the best GUI toolkits available for making native-looking desktop applications that run on both Windows, MacOS, and Linux. Being Swing-based, it is also extremely well-suited for integration with "high-tech" custom components (like this<http://people.csail.mit.edu/ebakke/sieuferd/index.html> spreadsheet-like interface from my PhD project). These things are a real differentiator compared to, say, Eclipse/SWT, JavaFX, .NET, or HTML5.

Maintaining the NetBeans Platform as a leading toolkit for building native-looking desktop apps requires that platform applications look and feel good on all the supported platforms. One area that still needs work is better support for retina/HiDPI screens, which have been standard on many MacBooks for years and are starting to appear on Windows as well. IntelliJ has already updated their IDE to support this, as have the big desktop application suites like Microsoft Office and Adobe Creative Suite. There are a lot of little things to fix wrt. retina/HiDPI; see bugzilla<https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=239745>. I also have a small list of other unrelated issues.

I'd be happy to try to contribute some bugfixes in the future.

-- Eirik

On 9/24/16, 10:23 AM, "geertjan wielenga" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:


Excellent. That's great to hear, Steven.

We're now trying to draw up as complete a list of contributors as
possible, see it near the end of the proposal here:

https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/NetBeansProposal

What kind of contributions would you be interested in providing for the
future Apache NetBeans?

Do you have concrete areas you'd like to work on? Or specific areas
where you'd like to fix bugs?

If so, would be great to add you to the list of contributors -- as well
as anyone else on this list who is reading this and would like to get
involved!

Would be great to be able to make use of all the NetBeans API knowledge
that we have built up amongst ourselves on this mailing list -- anyone
is free to drop me a mail or respond to this one with ideas for how you
might like to get involved in this upcoming Apache project around NetBeans.

Thanks,

Gj

On 13-9-2016 21:27, Steven Yi wrote:
For what it's worth, I find the proposed changes very inviting and
find myself more interested now to make contributions than I had in
the past.  I do have a small dream that a Github-based system can be
worked out, one similar to Apache Groovy.  Assuming the project will
be accepted for incubation, I look forward to following the transition
and looking at opportunities to contribute.

Many thanks to Sun, Oracle, and all involved to bring Netbeans this
far, and best wishes for where Netbeans goes from here!

steven


On Tue, Sep 13, 2016 at 3:03 PM, Matthias Bläsing
<[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hey,

Am Dienstag, den 13.09.2016, 10:36 +0200 schrieb geertjan wielenga:
Here's the proposal published over the past hour:

https://wiki.apache.org/incubator/NetBeansProposal

Take note of the many initial committers, which includes James
Gosling (father of Java), a range of developers from various
organizations, as well as a big group from Oracle.
Broadening and simplifying the netbeans contribution process is very
good and it looks as if the general response is positive. I hope this
is not just to write off netbeans silently, that would be a shame.

One think that should be carefully taken care is making sure the
current contributers are included in the effort. The initial committer
list for example does not cover the current committers to the netbeans
codebase (or at least not the complete list).

Hoping for a bright future for netbeans (Apache or not)

Matthias