Re: Apache proposal for NetBeans

Hi Geertjan,

just another few suggestions, ideas, questions - a littler later now, but
nevertheless:

One issue with the current state of the platform is incomplete support for
OSGi. If this is relevant for others too, one possible thing to do could be
adding full support for modules installed as OSGi bundles - first of all in
the updater and also full support to lauch the platform natively as an OSGi
bundle in Apache Felix itself. It's pity now that the "build-osgi" ant task
has a bug, which has not been fixed for over a year. It fails, if any piece
of java 8 code is present in the sources, see the bug report here:
https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=250440.

As to JavaFX, I don't have much experience with it, but from what has been
posted on this thread, wouldn't it be really worth adapting the platform? I
personally like the idea that the UI is skinnable with css. Users expect
stylish views, adaptable to changing fashion. But, most important for me,
if Oracle has decided not to develop Swing any further, would it really be
a good think not to follow and port to JavaFX?

So I envision a rich client framework based on JavaFX which is fully
compliant with OSGi (in fact, it should be launched by default on Apache
Felix) and provides all the other functionality that the platform provides
now. Shouldn't it be possible to raise funds for this project? Maybe it's
worth considering to start with the basic application framework instead of
transforming the whole IDE (i.e. step 1: start a small JavaFX-OSGi-NetBeans
platform fork, step 2: adapt the editor structure, step 3: port the IDE)? I
don't know the actual amount of work that needed to be done, but to my
experience, a great deal of the platform functionality is well isolated
from the UI, which should be a base requirement for a not-too-difficult
adaption (to be precise, i reuse the lookup and filesystems / layer
configuration functionality within a java ee container).

Boris

2016-09-27 19:53 GMT+02:00 Peter Blemel <[email protected]>:

> Hi,
>
>
> I have been building RCP apps for a long time, and although I've been
> pretty quiet on the mailing lists I can help contribute in the future.
>
>
> I got a new laptop with a high res display at work. I had to tweak the
> Netbeans configuration using a workaround I found to get both the IDE and
> my RCP apps to display in a sane way, but I have problems dragging the app
> window between the laptop display and an external display in Win10.  I
> think the problem is actually in Windows itself, because I have a couple of
> other apps that don't "like" to be drug between the laptop and
> external displays either.  Toolbar button graphics (etc) are definitely
> going to be needing some work moving ahead,  but my app looks fine for
> the most part.
>
>
> Anyway, I wouldn't mind pitching in to help fix issues.
>
>
> Peter
>
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* Eirik Bakke <[email protected]>
> *Sent:* Tuesday, September 27, 2016 7:17 AM
> *To:* [email protected]
> *Subject:* [platform-dev] 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]>
> 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]> 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
>
>
>
>


-- 
Boris Heithecker


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