Overview of NetBeans 7.0.1

NetBeans 6.5 is a powerful, project-oriented, open-source integrated development environment for developing Java and J2EE applications.   

Using the Distributed NetBeans client plug-in to the NetBeans IDE, you can develop OpenVMS applications in C/C++, FORTRAN, PASCAL, and BASIC, in addition to Java and J2EE.

The NetBeans IDE is written in Java, but can support any programming language.  It is a free (open-source) product with no restrictions on how it can be used.

In NetBeans 7.0.1, everything you do is based on the concept of a project.

Projects

An IDE project is a group of source files and associated information about how to build and run the project.  For Java projects, this includes information about what belongs on the classpath, and so forth.  The IDE stores project information in a project folder which includes an Ant build script and properties file that control the build and run settings, and a project.xml file that maps Ant targets to IDE commands.  The project folder is not the same as the source folder where your actual project sources are stored.   Your source directories do not need to be located in the project folder, but they can be if you like.

In NetBeans 7.0.1, you always work inside of a project.  You can create standard projects that use an IDE-generated Ant script to build the project, or create free-form projects that are based on your existing Ant scripts.

For more information about NetBeans projects, see

  NetBeans IDE Documentation

Ant

Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool used to standardize and automate build and run environments for development. It’s like MMS on OpenVMS, or make in Unix. The IDE's project system is built directly on top of Ant.  All of the project commands, such as Build Project or Run File in Debugger, call targets in the project's Ant script.  You can therefore build and run your project outside the IDE exactly as it is built and run inside the IDE.

You do not need to know Ant to work with the IDE.  You can set all the basic compilation and runtime options in the project's Project Properties dialog box and the IDE automatically updates your project's Ant script.  If you know how to work with Ant, you can customize a standard project's Ant script or write your own Ant script for your project.

You can learn more about Ant at

 http://ant.apache.org/