Chris Johnston

Netbeans 4.1 Early Access 2 has been released.

This early access release has over 15 new modules for developing Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) 1.4 applications and is built on the novel and breakthrough NetBeans 4.0 technology. Users can develop programs for Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE), Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME), and now J2EE Enterprise Java Bean (EJB)components and Web Services. Using the free Sun Java System Application Server Platform Edition 8.1 Release Candidate as the deployment runtime and with NetBeans guiding the developer and automatically building the underlying J2EE infrastructure, learning about and developing J2EE 1.4 applications has never been easier. To further assist the developer, J2EE Java BluePrints catalog is also included.

Builder AU has an article where they compare five of the more popular Java IDEs available. The IDEs on test are Eclipse 3.0.1 with MyEclipse, Websphere Studio Application Developer 5.1.2, Netbeans 4.0, Sun Studio Creator 4.26, and JBuilder 2005.

At the beginning of the article they list the criteria that they are going to use to compare the apps and the platforms on which they did the testing. However, this is really the last time that you hear of these requirements. The rest of the article is highly subjective and really of no use. Sure, they do a good job of identifying the positive aspects of each IDE, but that is all that they do. None of the reviews list any form of quantitative evidence as to how each IDE performed. Although each review does contain a score at the end. But even here, the scores all hover around 25/30. As a critical review of each IDE, the article sucks.

In addition, probably the benchmark for Java IDEs, Intellij IDEA, was not reviewed. Every unofficial/personal review of IDEs that I have ever read almost always has IDEA coming out on top. So what is the value of writing a review of IDE applications and not including IDEA?

The article is an interesting read though and it does provide an excellent overview of each IDE. Just don’t expect a critical review complete with quanitative evidence and well defined metrics that clearly show one IDE winning out over all the others. But if you just want in introduction into each program, then definitely read the article.

Oracle Technology Network has released step 8 in their Mastering J2EE Application Development series. This article deals with integrating JSF with Struts in your J2EE applications.

For several years, Struts has been a popular and widely used framework for building web applications using Java. Recently, a new API that has significant overlap with Struts functionality—JavaServer Faces (JSF)—has become standard, giving rise to questions about which technology developers should use, and what they can do with existing Struts-based applications to start taking advantage of JSF’s capabilities. This article briefly introduces both technologies, and discusses how to migrate the user-interface elements from Struts to JSF, providing a technique you can use to integrate the two technologies to obtain the best of both worlds.

WindowsDevCenter.com has an article on running Mac OS X on a PC. I have heard of the Pear PC emulator project before and I have seen several different articles detaling how to get it up and running, but this one may be the easiest to follow of them all. If you have a fast computer and access an 10.3 install disk, you may want to check the article out.

Apparently, someone has created a Pear PC configuration tool that goes a long way to making the install a lot easier for mere mortals. From the screenshots provided in the article, this tools seems to really simplify the entire install/config process.

Personally though, I am not sure how applicable this article is with the release of the mac mini. For just $629 CAD, you can save yourself the trouble and actually run OS X on a mac.

PostgreSQL 8.0 has been released. The biggest feature added to this release is native Windows support. Up till the release of version 8, windows support was done through cygwin. Some of the other features include:

• Savepoints
• Point-In-time Recovery
• Perl Server-Side Language

I have been using PostgreSQL as my primary RDBMS for the past 6 months and have been really impressed with it. I have also been waiting for version 8.0 for the last 6 months as well. Below are some links of interest:

• PostgreSQL: What’s New in 8.0
• News Release
• Walkthrough of the Windows Installer
• Windows FAQ

eWeek has an article on the Honeypot Project which reported that unpatched Linux system last longer on the net than an equivalent Windows system. What this means is that if you install Linux onto a computer and attach it to the internet without doing a single other thing to the system, it will last longer before being hacked or compromised than an equivalent Windows machine. In some cases, the time for a Windows PC to be compromised is less than 20 minutes. For the a Linux machine, it is measured in months.

Picasa is probably about the best photo management software available for Windows PCs. As one person put it, it is iPhoto for the PC. Picasa allows you to store, edit, sort, print, email, and share your photos. It also has some new features that are pretty cool. My favorite so far is the automatic backup to either CD, DVD, or a network drive. With one click, you can backup all of your images.

PCMagazine has posted a review of Picasa 2 giving it 4.5 stars and giving it their Editors’ Choice award.