NetBeans
NetBeans refers to both a platform framework for Java desktop applications, and an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing with Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Groovy, C, C++, Scala, Clojure, and others. The NetBeans IDE 7.0 no longer supports Ruby and Ruby on Rails.
The NetBeans IDE is written in Java and can run anywhere a JVM is installed, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Solaris. A JDK is required for Java development functionality, but is not required for development in other programming languages.
The NetBeans platform allows applications to be developed from a set of modular software components called modules. Applications based on the NetBeans platform (including the NetBeans IDE) can be extended by third party developers.
NetBeans IDE 6.0 introduced support for developing IDE modules and rich client applications based on the NetBeans platform, a Java Swing GUI builder (formerly known as "Project Matisse"), improved CVS support, WebLogic 9 and JBoss 4 support, and many editor enhancements. NetBeans 6 is available in official repositories of major Linux distributions.
NetBeans IDE 6.5, released in November 2008, extended the existing Java EE features (including Java Persistence support, EJB 3 and JAX-WS). Additionally, the NetBeans Enterprise Pack supports development of Java EE 5 enterprise applications, including SOA visual design tools, XML schema tools, web services orchestration (for BPEL), and UML modeling. The NetBeans IDE Bundle for C/C++ supports C/C++ and FORTRAN development.
The NetBeans IDE 6.8 is the first IDE to provide complete support of Java EE 6 and the GlassFish Enterprise Server v3. Developers hosting their open-source projects on kenai.com additionally benefit from instant messaging and issue tracking integration and navigation right in the IDE, support for web application development with PHP 5.3 and the Symfony framework, and improved code completion, layouting, hints and navigation in JavaFX projects.
NetBeans IDE 6.9, released in June 2010, added support for OSGi, Spring Framework 3.0, Java EE dependency injection (JSR-299), Zend Framework for PHP, and easier code navigation (such as "Is Overridden/Implemented" annotations), formatting, hints, and refactoring across several languages.
