Ah yes, NetBeans Day

Man, after using the default web-based editor for blogger.com for a few posts, I think I am going to spend a little time at the end of next week searching for a tool that automatically lays out more than 1 image in a somewhat decent-looking way. Anyway, substance over style so I'll just live with this for the time being.

Gosling's South Park-style character is really cool. It's been around for coupla years but now I really want them done for my family and friends. Does anyone have software (or service) that can generate it from photos? ;-)

The technical sessions detailing new features of NetBeans were a little dry. That probably has to do with the fact that I've been using the tool for about 3 years now, and had attended all the previous NetBeans Days, so the steep ramp up from mediocrity to delight is beginning to taper off. OK, so NetBeans 6 has a new, improved editor, and Mobility support is better, and Matisse (the GUI builder) has been upgraded too. Maybe I am easy to please but the editor was good enough for me from 5.0 to 5.5, so I'll try to see if I can notice the improvement next week when I get back (and have some time). Mobility support was already best in class, so I will also have to deep-dive into it to understand how much it is going to help me in future projects. I did a Swing frontend 6 months ago requiring a widget count of 200+, with dynamic (color & text changing) buttons etc. and Matisse really ROCKS! So am eager to find about this out more as well. I was in the Mobility track so I missed that preso.

Soon it was time for our father (lowercase 'f') James Gosling to take the stage. As you can see, my buddy Scott Lea was very pleased with himself as he out-jumped people around him and one-handedly caught a rubber thingamybob thrown by the man himself.

As far as NetBeans 6 is concerned, I think the biggest new feature is scripting support. I know JRuby and JavaScript come out of the box but am curious to see if there are other plug-ins for others like Groovy (which is beginning to interest me). For some time, I've deliberately stayed away from developing Web apps (sounds crazy huh?) and focused on Java ME (CDC, CLDC and JavaCard) Swing, JMX and other non-web Java EE technologies because I wanted more efficient means of building relatively simple web apps. Scripting is clearly the answer, and now that the tools support it ... time to revisit.





It's nice that the event formerly known as NetBeans Day has migrated away from the hotel formerly known as Argent to Moscone Center. Queueing up in cramped spaces should be reserved for families in Disneyland. The beer (in my right hand) was really good, tasted like Fat Tire Ale but I'm not an expert. I like Stout and smooth dark ales, and this one was good. The food looked decent but Scott, Chuk & I were saving our appetites for a forthcoming Chirashi.






After Scott went off on his 2-1/2 hour commute back to San Jose (Muni, then Caltrain, then light rail, then girlfriend pick-up), Chuk & I went to the Metreon to walk off the dinner bulge.

2-1/2 hours to commute from Moscone to central San Jose! I lived in the bay area for 10 years so I am positive I can drive down in 1-1/2 hours even in bad traffic. Until public transport is improved (or gas prices raised again), we are in for a much warmer future.







Anyway, gotta go for JavaOne Day 2 in coupla minutes. Took lots of notes from Day 1 but haven't had time or energy to share the experience yet. Blogging is supposed to be spontaneous and timely but I'm already a day behind. Oh well ...

I've leave you with my T-shirt count of 3:

1. OpenSolaris
2. Community One
3. NetBeans 6