Tools on Track: Sun to Offer Three Levels of Java(TM) IDEs

★ wanayoo — archive 1999 http://java.sun.com/features/1999/10/tools.html

TOOLS ON TRACK
Sun to Offer Three Levels of Java^TM IDEs

by Barry D. Bowen

Regardless of whether you're a newbie to the Java^TM platform, or ready to build and deploy an enterprise-class distributed eBusiness solution, Sun has a tool for you. Sun sought out two market-leading Java platform IDE makers and acquired them to be part of the Sun organization. Over the next few months Sun will roll out Java platform tools in three editions, add consulting services for larger projects, and integrate their application server and IDE tool offerings with existing tools and software infrastructure.

Here's an overview of Sun's tools strategy.

Sun acquired Oakland, Calif.-based Forte Software. Forte makes an enterprise-class Java platform IDE called SynerJ; a process-based application integration tool suite called Fusion; and the firm's flagship Forte 4GL product that produces C++. Forte is a pioneer and market leader in scalable, enterprise-class distributed application integration, development and deployment tools.

SynerJ will provide the basis for the high-end of the tools offering, Sun Forte for Java Enterprise Edition. This is the tool for building large, complex distributed applications that will be deployed on multiple Web servers or an application server.

Sun acquired Prague, Czech Republic-based NetBeans. NetBeans Developer is the industry-leading Java platform IDE on Linux and a cross-platform IDE fully implemented to the Java platform. NetBeans Developer 3.0 is available in beta from NetBeans immediately at http://www.netbeans.com/product_dl.html.

Sun will release two versions of Java platform tools based upon NetBeans Developer. A beta version of the Community Edition will be available for download from Sun's web site later this year. An Internet Edition will be available for download from the Sun web site in the first quarter of next year.

NetBeans Developer fully supports Sun's Java 2 platform. The Internet Edition of Sun's new tool offering adds, among other capabilities, support for Servlets, JavaServer Pages^TM, CORBA and JDBC^TM technologies, and XML development.

NetBeans Developer Q&A
More information on NetBeans Developer.

NetBeans Developer in Action
Catch a glimpse at how one NetBeans customer developed an innovative solution.

According to NetBeans founder Roman Stanek, NetBeans Developer was written with a couple of clear objectives. One was to support cutting-edge features, so it was one of the first IDEs to support Swing components, and the company began working on Java 2 Platform support very early to incorporate it as soon as possible. A second objective was to deliver a product that would be easy to use, even for novices to the Java platform.

"While there have been over 1.2 million downloads of the JDK^TM software, Java technology is still very new to many developers. At the university level Java may be the first programming language students are taught. We designed a product that would be quick to download, easy to install, and would make learning the Java language as easy as possible," Stanek said.

Stanek said they met their goal of creating a product that can be installed in three minutes with three mouse clicks. The product is still only six to seven megabytes in size, he noted, which is dramatically better than the 80 MB of a commercial IDE he recently downloaded.

NetBeans Developer is written completely to the Java platform, so it embodies the software paradigm new users are trying to learn. It is also an open platform with APIs to incorporate other tools, which provides a great deal of flexibility.

With the acquisition of NetBeans Developer and Forte SynerJ, Sun will be able to aggressively roll out the three new editions of its IDEs that are optimized for distinct groups of developers.

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