Build your Java Development Environment with open source tools

 Interesting  1 Response »
Jan 282010
 

Some People around me are Java developers and CS students. We all use Sun JDK and Sun JRE. Sometimes, when I need to help them to debug their Java programs, I always find commercial development tools without License, for example: Windows, MyEclipse, SQL Server or even winrar.

You know, Java is open source or, call free software as you like, protected by GNU Public License. No matter the software is free or not free, it has it’s own license. AS a programmer, you may know it.So, let’s build our own development environment without any commercial software, just open source tools.

First:OS

If you are a programmer, not windows programmer I mean, please choose Linux or Solaris, it’s very important, you can get sed, bash and many other useful tools.

Some people will say, the CLI is too old, that’s because you do not know what is KDE4, Gnome, Xfce. X window system has very beautiful appearance, you can do most things using mouse if you like.

As a programmer, you do not need too much, a text editor, an IDE, a compiler, IM, dictionary, browser, what’s more? Twitter? Music? Movie? Ok, that’s easy for Linux and Solaris.

I will not tell you which distribution of Linux is fit for you, but I advice you to try Slackware 13, Fedora 12 for KDE or KUbuntu, it works well with my laptop, even do not need too much configuration work.

Second: compiler

Java Developer? OK, download Sun JDK(maybe we must call it Oracle JDK from now on?), Install it, that’s all, add $JAVA_HOME to your .bash_profile, then reload, you can get all Java tools.

then, IDE?

The best choice is Netbeans6.7.1 and Netbeans 6.8. Download it from http://www.netbeans.org, install it, you can get all you want, the only IDE you need, with Glassfish, IReport, Ivy support, UML support, GAE support and PHP/Python/Ruby/C/C++ support.

We have Netbeans, why we need myEclipse? You must know that Netbeans is powerful enough to do whatever you want to implement.

Database? You have MySQL and PostgreSQL.

Please do not use Java with SQL Server, it’s suck experience, Let’s try MySQL or PostgreSQL, you will not be disappointed.

If you need a text editor, as an IDE user, I think vim or emacs are not fit for you, try kwrite or gedit, you will like it.When you need to surf the net,try Firefox, Chrome or Opera.

OK, that’s what we need, isn’t it? Why we use commercial software without license? As a programmer, respect your peer and their jobs.Thanks.

 Posted by at 15:30

Calm Down! Thinking about Oracle’s Strategy for Sun’s Products

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Jan 282010
 

About half years ago, Oracle announced that it wanted to buy Sun, and yesterday it announced to finish to acquire Sun Microsystems. As Java Programmer, we all very care about the strategy for Sun’s products, including Java, Netbeans, Glassfish, Solaris/OpenSolaris, OpenOffice, VirtualBox, JavaFX, Kenai.com. Some time ago, I am worried about the future of these products, I just remember the disappearance of BEA Dev community website. Now, Oracle tell us the strategy, but I can not see the Web Case, it is always break down when I try to open it.

After 10 minutes search on Google about the content of these Web Case, I find I can not get much information about it. OK, it’s the end to talk about it, just calm down, let’s think about the strategy.

Java
Java is not just a language, is not just a platform, is not just a product, it is a world, protected by GNU Public License. Do you worry about Java? I am not, really not. Java is the biggest language in the world at the moment, if Oracle is not too stupid, Java will continue to grow, as a language, as a platform, as a product, even as a world. JDK7? JavaEE7? That’s not the problem, we need more than 3-4 years to upgrade from JavaEE1.4, JavaEE5 to JavaEE6, maybe we need 3-4 years to think about JavaEE7(maybe). Who can see the next 10 years for information age? Do not worry, Java is enough, stable and productive is the most important.

Netbeans
This is my favorite IDE, I use it day and day, for JavaSE, JavaEE, Report and JavaFX. What’s the future? I didn’t see many topics about the future in Netbeans’ developer mailing list. After reading some news, maybe Oracle will not give up Netbeans, but it looks like Oracle do not want to treat Netbeans as the most important IDE product. Do not forget, Netbeans is very very popular. Netbeans is good enough for J2EE1.4, JavaeE5 and JavaEE6, as I said for Java, we do not afraid about the 7-8 years later, just force on now, Netbeans 6.7.1 and Netbeans 6.8 is good enough for now, for today.

Glassfish
Glassfish V2.1 is productive and stable, V3 is good, but not enough for cluster. Do you need an Java Application Server without cluster support? OK, do not tell me to use Web Profile, JavaEE6 is the future, JavaEE5 is today.What do you want? Use Glassfish V2.1 is a good idea. Oracle has Weblogic, the old, big, slow and expensive application server, we believe Oracle likes to be evil, if you do not think so, I think so. Just use Glassfish V2.1, if you need to upgrade to JavaEE6 after many years, we must have other good choice, information age is on the way to change. Wishes for Glassfish and developers.

Solaris/OpenSolaris
The first time I met Solaris is 2004, after 1 years working on Solaris x86 edition, I fell in love with it, the best Unix. Then I migrate to OpenSolaris and Solaris 10 on my desktop station. Oracle works well with Red hat Linux, also has it’s own distribution Linux, but Oracle is money inside, Sun hardware with Solaris as database machine is really fast, so Solaris will continue, OpenSolaris will continue too, but maybe the support will reduce from Oracle. I would like to see some day, Oracle’s cashier need to use openoffice on an OpenSolaris based PC, that’s interesting.

OpenOffice
The future is online office suit, but OpenOffice 3 is good enough for today, if Oracle is not stupid,increase investment on OpenOffice,otherwise, we can use OpenOffice 3.

VirtualBox
A very very good virtual machine software, stupid Oracle will give it up, smart Oracle will make it open source, add commercial support on Solaris.

JavaFX
Move JavaFX to mobile, make it works better and faster on web, running on desktop and mobile. It’s the future, but JavaFX need to face to Flash/Flex.

Kenai.com
I believe evil Oracle want to kill Kenai.com, not all staff in Oracle is kind Tom, so, please try to do the migration, to Google Code, SF.net or other site. I like Kenai.com, but let’s waiting for Oracle, do be evil or do not be evil.

20100128, most news force on a very very common product: Jobs’ IPad, it’s not a exciting product, we all should calm down, just thinking about the strategy from Oracle, then go to desk to continue our work, coding, designing and debug. Do not care about all these products we love, we have the moment, leave Oracle to bet on tomorrow.

At last, MySQL, we have PostgreSQL, that’s all, back to work, we have today!

 Posted by at 11:20

Use Ivy with Netbeans

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Jan 272010
 

I believe all java programmers need a build tool, some use ant, some other use maven, I am a netbeans user, it has wonderful maven support, and netbeans is based on ant. How about use netbeans with Ivy?

If you do not know what is Ivy, please Google it, you can manage your Jars with it, works very well with ant.

Sure, you can write your ivy.xml and setup your own classpath for netbeans, but is there a better way? I think I find it.Please check this project on google code: http://code.google.com/p/ivybeans/

it’s a plugin for netbeans to use Ivy, I test it on netbeans6.7.1 and netbeans 6.8, it makes my life easier.Now let me show you what you can get.

1.download the last version of ivybeans from http://code.google.com/p/ivybeans/
2.decompress it, you will get two files: com-googlecode-ivybeans-libs.nbm,com-googlecode-ivybeans-module.nbm.
3.install these two nbm files to your netbeans, then restart.
4.you do not need to install ant and ivy for yourself, because netbeans has it’s own ant, ivybeans will install Ivy for you.
5.start a new project or open your own project, right click on your project, then you can find Ivy support, enable it.
6.if you have your own ivy.xml, I advice you to remove it, then add your jar dependency to manually to ivybeans.
7.ok, that’s what you get, just try to compile your project, you can find that ivybeans manages your dependency and set classpath for netbeans.

That makes life easier, enjoy it.

 Posted by at 11:01