NetBeans Platform na Mundo Java nº 29

Este mês saiu nas bancas a revista Mundo Java nº29, um artigo meu sobre a plataforma NetBeans, expliquei as principais classes e funcionalidades, e no final apresentei um tutorial prático de como extender o NetBeans e criar poderosos plugins..
Ainda nesta edição na seção "Eu uso" teve a participação mais que especial do Tim Boudreau, um dos engenheiros e pioneiro na criação das primeiras versões do IDE e do nosso querido Bruno Souza o JavaMan..
Eu mesmo traduzi o artigo do Tim, espero que quem leu tenha gostado.
Com a autorização do Tim, vou publicar o artigo dele na seção "Eu uso", claro, em inglês !!!

I work on the NetBeans Platform. Probably the most gratifying thing about that work is to see how it is used - anybody who creates software wants to see it used - it is what gives our work meaning. In the simplest view, what the NetBeans Platform does is solve problems. I believe in writing software that can be finished. That is, you write something that is solid and right and works and then you can leave it alone and move on to the next problem. The modular nature of NetBeans - indeed, the module system itself - makes it easier to build software out of a lot of libraries each of which does one thing well - and guarantee system integrity at runtime. It solves the DLL hell problem for once and for all, and in the process creates design patterns that are ideal for distributed development - how do you build software created by a large community and minimize the risks that changes to one part of the system will break another? The core beauty of NetBeans is the module system.

But what amazes me more is what people do on top of it. Let's take one case-in-point: Nokia. If you are a mobile service provider, such as Tim in Brazil (no relation :-)), and you buy your hardware from Nokia (your transmitters, the things that make a mobile phone network work), you will need some software to manage that network. If you are buying that hardware from Nokia, you get an application for managing your network. But it's not just one applications - it is many applications and one at the same time. They have used the NetBeans Platform plus Java WebStart technology together in an incredibly innovative way - and because Nokia contributed WebStart support to NetBeans, you can do the same thing for your applications.

Java WebStart is a technology that lets you launch a Java desktop application by clicking a URL. Anybody who has installed Sun's Java has Java WebStart. It's not wildly popular yet, but it is an incredible technology for improving the experience people have with internet-based applications. Why? Because there is only one copy of the software. I once visited a company - actually a software development organization for a state in the U.S. They asked us: "Can you please release new versions less often? Every time you have a new version, some guy has to walk around with a CD-ROM and visit 350 workstations and install it!"

That's crazy, and Java WebStart offers the solution. You click a URL and a desktop application starts - all the benefits of centralized management that you get from web applications, but it's a real desktop application. And when you download a new version, you don't download all the bits - only a diff between what was and what is. It's a darned cool technology.

Now put that together with a modular system like NetBeans, where an application discovers its parts during startup.

With Nokia's NetBeans-based software, it works like this: Imagine you work for a telecom in the mobile phone space. There are a lot of different jobs you might be doing: Some people monitor the network for problems. Some people dispatch physical repair trucks to go fix things. So, if you are using this software, well, you start it by clicking a link on the web. And to even see the link, you had to log in, so the system knows who you are and what you need.

So what happens? You click the link. The server knows who you are and what your job is. The result is that you start up one application - but it is an application with many faces. The server gives you an application which contains those modules you need to do your job - it will be a different set of modules depending on what you do and what you need access to.

Now think about what this does for the people who write this software! In a modular system, you usually do UI in one module and back-end logic in another. The result of all this is that the users have a better experience - they get a UI tailored for their job; and the developers get a better experience: 1. They can write back end logic once and share it for all possible cases, and 2. They don't have to write multiple applications that do variations on the same thing, and that saves a lot of time.

Anybody who is doing a large-scale desktop application should consider the NetBeans Platform; anybody who is considering a suite of related programs that share some logic and diverge in UI would be insane not to consider using it.

I am, of course, biased - I have worked on the NetBeans Platform. The criteria for people who could benefit from it are clear and hard to argue with:
- Anybody doing a multi-window desktop application
- Anybody writing a desktop application that needs to save state on shutdown
- Anybody writing an application with a concept of selection that determines action enablement or similar
- Particularly anybody writing several related applications that share some logic

We've worked very hard to make it easy to try the NetBeans Platform for your application. If you fit, even remotely, into any of the categories above, you could save time, money and effort with it - give it a look.

-Tim Boudreau, 16/12/07

Um agradecimento especial para o Bruno Souza por ter aceitado o convite, para o Tim Boudreau, para o Guapo e o Eduardo Guerra da Mundo Java que vem lutando para manter esta revista com um alto padrão, e claro para você leitor !!!

Se você se interessa por aplicações desktop e tem interesse em saber como funciona a arquitetura por trás do IDE NetBeans, compre essa revista, além deste artigo você vai encontrar nesta edição os seguintes temas..

• Desenvolvendo aplicações desktop ricas na Plataforma NetBeans.
• Animações 2D em JavaFX na prática.
• Binding, Componentes, Customizados e Template de Telas no SwingBeans 1.2.
• Click Framework.
• Acesso a Serviços Multimídia em Java ME com SIP-API e IMS.
• Tendências em foco: Java e o Mundo Web.
• RSS dinâmico, rápido e fácil com ROME e STRUTS 2
• Escolhendo uma ferramenta Case Gratuita para modelagem UML.
• Modelando Transações de Facade a AspectJ.
• De olho no mercado: Educação continuada de um Desenvolvedor
• Mundo OO: O Ciclo Ágil de um Dia

E mais , você leva de graça um Poster Mundo Java: Resumão SCJP- Parte III

Diversão Garantida !!!