Couldn’t wait for M8; I have just installed the latest NetBeans development build to play around and see what’s coming. First I had a look at the update center, ’cause charles ditzel found a f3 module there (although non-functional). Seems they removed it since. Damned, I’m really looking forward to that. By the way, Chris Oliver is going to present f3 at JavaOne. But there are still some really neat new modules (or have I overlooked them before?). Some random picks:
* Source Copyright suggestions: checks for missing copyright statements in your sources, that’s neat (although I didn’t find out how o invoke it 
)…
* Jalopy Java Source Code formatter: Yessss!, I really missed the features JBuilder offered for code formatting since I started with NetBeans.
* DocBook project: Write docbook files, export to various formats and freeze NetBeans
* Lots of language support packs (Ruby),
and most important a great new source editor that suggests variable names and marks the lines that I changed. I really start thinking about having a private NetBeans 6.0 release party :)!
If you are planning to visit JavaOne this year, you can meet me at the pavillion. I’ll be there on Tuesday May 8, 2007, 1:00 - 5:30 approx to present the Project. The exact time is not written in stone and may vary. After my talk which is scheduled for 1:00 I will be at the demo station, where you can see jarvis in action, and we can discuss it’s aims and latest developments.
Here is the abstract:
http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Javaone/JarvisAbstract
Looking forward to see you!
“When you start a project at JavaTools, it goes to the incubation area. This will allow projects to get established and gain momentum. Later, your project can be graduated. Graduated projects are projects that reached a first release, stable or not, and are ready to be downloaded.”
Good news! I’ve been asked by the java.net community leaders if I would like to graduate jarvis from the incubator, and I think we are ready for this step. I will have to prepare an installation instructions, a tutorial, a possibility to download (update center), and then I can file a graduation issue. I hope I can do all of this next weekend.
By the way: jarvis now also has filetype support for .jrprint files.
I wonder why there is no ANTLR module in NetBeans (at least I didn’t find one). The Lexer Module is going to be integrated in NetBeans 6.0 to support Antlr, JavaCC Lexers for syntax highlighting, brace matching, and so on, but no support whatsoever if I want to develop my grammar to do syntax highlighting for a new language. Why is there no language support for ANTLR itself, at least syntax highlighting and lexer/parse generation?
I mean, ANTLR (and javaCC) support would immediately speed up support for new languages in NetBeans. I have found some vague statements that something is underway, but no timeline and an obviously hibernated project, but nothing I can lay may hands on. And for the worst other IDEs have such a support .
I mean, NetBeans is great for integrating tools and the ANTLR grammar is available, so how hard can it be? If anyone has more information on an upcoming support for ANTLR, please let me know, so I can sleep well again :).
