As the Java programming language has increased in both functionality and complexity, developers have demanded more of their program editors. Gone are the days when a simple visual editor is sufficient for even small programming projects. While there are numerous IDEs available today for use by Java developers, one stands above the rest, not only for its functionality, but for its extensibility: NetBeans. In NetBeans: The Definitive Guide, you'll find out how to use this IDE to its fullest, making your Java programming more efficient and productive than ever before. You'll understand the basics of the IDE, and quickly be utilizing the various editor and explorer windows. You'll also master many of NetBeans advanced features, and be working with XML documents, CVS repositories, Javadoc trees, and web applications, all within the NetBeans framework. In addition to teaching you how to use the existing features of NetBeans, this work goes on to cover developing additional modules for NetBeans. Through this instructional portion of the book, you will master the NetBeans APIs, and learn how to enhance NetBeans for your own specific needs. Whether you need to add customized behavior to handle your proprietary file formats, or want to redistribute NetBeans as a proprietary product, NetBeans: The Definitive Guide will allow you to master this open source IDE and all of its advanced features. Whether you are an enterprise developer looking for an IDE that can handle your complex program tasks, an open source developer looking to integrate NetBeans into your own visual projects, or a manager trying to maximize your team's development potential,NetBeans: The Definitive Guide is the book for you.

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 13 Ratings

Beware: Sample Source Code Obsolete - 2005-11-16
Reviewer Rating:
Overall, this book is a very good reference but there are currently only two books written dedicated to the use of the NetBeans IDE and platform.

I am currently working with the 5.0 Beta release of NetBeans and it has some very nice new features and excellent forums and tutorials at netbeans.org. However, having progressed through the O'Reilly book tutorials one thing is very clear - the API's are continually changing.

The majority of code samples in this book cannot be compiled and run in the current and beta releases of NetBeans. This makes this book less useful than need be. It would be wise of O'Reilly to make an effort to release an second edition or at least to provide updates to the sample code which overcome the deprecation of classes used in the examples.

Perhaps even NetBeans.org could update and post retooled examples as the ones presented appear to be very useful indeed.

Bottom Line: Very disappointed with examples being outdated and unusable.

Otherwise, the book is informative and well written as I have found all of my references from O'Reilly.

It's a good book, but Eclipse is a better open-source IDE - 2004-08-04
Reviewer Rating:
At first, I thought that this book was a good book. It covered a free open-source IDE for Java and I wanted to learn to program in Java. I met a professional Java who was going to the Sun One Conference in San Francisco and he recommended Eclipse. I tried Eclipse and I think that it's much better than NetBeans. I first started to dislike NetBeans when it used tilde characters in my pathnames, which made them unreadable. I tried Eclipse and so far I love it. I'm selling my NetBeans book.

Sofar, O'Reilly books never disappointed me. - 2006-03-18
Reviewer Rating:
Sometimes I wish, I had all of the O'Reilly books on my shelf. "NetBeans The Definitive Guide" is a real asset to your bookshelf. IDE's are not that simple anymore. If you learn them by "hacking" you certainly do not learn the "hidden" features. Although I know Java well, this book helps to accomplish a development task faster. I like particular the chapters on Java Beans, Javadoc, XML, Extending NetBeans, Tuning Models. These are topics that require a book to help you.

lalin - 2005-04-19
Reviewer Rating:
Excellent book, even though there is only one :| Unfortunately, since it's release in 2002 netbeans have grown so much. This book was a life saver, too bad it's hard to link what it contains to what netbeans can do nowadays.

NetBeans - book review - 2008-11-30
Reviewer Rating:
Seller was great.

This book is good, not as wordy as a lot of OReilly books tend to be. I just don't like NetBeans. It's a resource hog, not anywhere near as robust, easy to use and configure as Eclipse, IMO.

Before you buy an book on NetBeans check the version covered and what you are using.

Browse Similar Topics

Top Level Categories:
Internet/Online
Programming

Sub-Categories:
Internet/Online > Java
Programming > Java