NetBeans IDE

Pros

• Incorporates open source code
• Features built-in Profiler
• Supports PHP

Cons

• May be slower than some IDEs
• Large and complex

NetBeans IDE is a Java programmer's integrated development environment that also comes with support for several other languages. When users first install the app, they'll be given the option to install a variety of extensions that allow NetBeans to parse code written in C, C++ and even PHP. Perhaps most importantly, NetBeans supports JavaScript as well as traditional compiled Java code.

While NetBeans was once part of the Xelfi student project, the latest release is nearly a commercial grade piece of software. It includes everything you'd expect from a professional IDE. Syntax highlighting, error negotiation and support for Java EE code can all be enabled from convenient pull down menus. Those who are working on bigger projects may enjoy the app's built-in XML schema tools while Rubyists and tinkerers might instead want to try out the BPEL web service orchestration module.

At its core, NetBeans IDE runs inside of a 100 percent open-source environment. That means you can create your own modules if you ever run into a situation where you need to compile some sort of code that the app doesn't support. Depending on what kinds of projects you're working on, though, this is relatively unlikely to happen.

It supports enough different ecosystems that you shouldn't run into too many gotchas while working on code engineered to take advantage of multiple platforms. Java developers, in particular, will probably never need to deploy another tool because NetBeans IDE comes with everything that they'd be likely to need.

Once you've completed a Java-based project, the IDE's Profiler tool will activate and look for memory leaks. As soon as it's found all of the problems that it's likely to come across, the Profiler will then point out any optimizations it thinks your code might benefit from. Longtime users might have remembered a time when you needed to download a special library to enable the Profiler before you could use it, but this release of NetBeans IDE comes with everything bundled in.

Over time, the Profiler will obtain a large amount of runtime information about your applets and notify of you potential problems. Creative users might want to set different breakpoints throughout their code to measure execution time and see if anything they've written doesn't fit the JVM's imaginary hardware paradigms. Since the JVM doesn't exist in real life, those who aren't used to writing applications for it will more than likely gravitate toward this particular tool.

Swing developers will appreciate the fact that NetBeans IDE allows them to visually drag and position GUI components onto blank forms. This can dramatically reduce the length of time it takes to create semi-native applications that run on local systems architectures. Some users might complain that the underlying IDE is slow and bloated at times, but this feature should more than make up for any shortcomings.

Those who primarily develop for the web can take advantage of similar technologies that automatically check whether or not any included JavaScript modules are compatible with modern browsers. With an increasingly large percentage of web applications relying exclusively on JavaScript code, this feature is sure to get plenty of use.

Pros

• Incorporates open source code
• Features built-in Profiler
• Supports PHP

Cons

• May be slower than some IDEs
• Large and complex