Netbeans IDE is powered by NetBeans Platform

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NetBeans IDE is built upon a software system called as NetBeans Platform. NetBeans Platform is used in software development since year 2000 when it went open source. NetBeans Platform is a framework which enables rapid desktop application development. It is an evolving platform and can do much more than rapid application development.

When we start developing a Java application, to achieve some business requirement; we often encounter a set of similar minimum requirements for a software.

The requirements like:

• Software shall be modular, which will enable us to turn modules on or off.
• Software shall be extensible, which will make it easy to add more functionality and extend the existing functionality.
• Software shall have a consistent User Interface and shall follow industry standards for graphical user interface.
• Software shall provide multithreaded approach for parallel tasks.
• Software shall contain configurable settings for many features offered in it
• Software shall have dockable windows
• Software shall be cross platform
• Software shall have cross platform deployment mechanism in such a way that native operating system users are comfortable with it
• Software shall have a update mechanism, which will enable the user to update the modules online
• Software shall have module versioning feature which enable developers to create modules for the software which depend on certain version of earlier modules

NetBeans Platform provides solutions for all the requirements mentioned above in a time tested way. It is prudent to use such a platform to develop softwares having more than one of the requirements listed above to save time in architectural features which are necessary for the stability and usability of the software.

This out of the box feature availability is the reason why the people listed in the NetBeans Showcase have chosen NetBeans Platform to build their software applications. I got acquainted with the NetBeans Platform when I started writing this blog and I was fascinated with the platform. Obviously my next step was to start learning this framework and I started searching for documentation and books.

Many things are helping me learning the NetBeans Platform like:

• Books written by NetBeans Platform gurus 
• Blogs written by veteran NetBeans developers and technical writers 
• Video tutorials by Geertjan 

What I found out from my learning is that there is a learning curve associated with NetBeans Platform as it was developed through many years and contains tons of patterns and practices. But, once you acquire the skill of using NetBeans Platform it is a pleasurable experience and efficient way of developing Java applications.

To make the learning easy for new developers Packt Publishing has published a new book for NetBeans Platform named NetBeans Platform 6.9 Developer's Guide by Jürgen Petri.  Initially this was a book in German language which is translated by the NetBeans Community in english to make it available for wider audience in the world.

I was asked by Packt Publishing to review this book because of my association with NetBeans IDE and because of this blog where I write about NetBeans IDE. It was a pleasure receiving a complimentary PDF copy of the book and going through all the concepts presented by the book.

With regards
Tushar Joshi, Nagpur

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