Re: NB Windows/Panel system

Gerry Steele wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've recently adopted Netbeans as my Java IDE of choice of all the
> various reasons. One of them is the very attractive and highly
> intuitive UI design style used.
> 
> I've tried looking through a lot of the current netbeans docs I can't
> seem to find anything about using this same windowing system in other
> applications... or indeed if it can be used. In fact I can't seem to
> find very much on the implementation details at all.
> 
> I am aware I could used the source but I would't have a clue were to start.
> 
> Can anyone point me in the right direction??

You probably want to ask this question on [email protected], which 
covers developing applications on NetBeans.

The tab control which does the basics is buildable as a standalone 
library, but that doesn't get you persistence, drag and drop, etc (these 
are implemented through listeners on the controls).

Underlying that is the NetBeans windowing system.  That's what 
implements the rest of the plumbing.  The API for it can be found in the 
package org.openide.windows;  the actual implementation is in the 
core/windows module - if you have a checkout of NetBeans sources, have a 
look in core/windows.

But the easiest way to reuse all of this (and more) is to build your 
application on NetBeans (in other words, your app is NetBeans minus the 
IDE-specific modules, plus your modules which implement what you want). 
  This gets you menu/action and setting management and lots of other 
stuff that can save years of development time in terms of getting a 
large application up and running quickly.  Additionally there may be 
NetBeans modules you can reuse for your own purposes.

The platform by itself is quite small and starts quickly.  For a brief 
overview, see
http://www.netbeans.org/products/platform/

-Tim