© Wallace Jackson 2017 135
W. Jackson, Pro Java 9 Games Development, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-0973-8_6
CHAPTER 6
Setting Up Your Java 9 IDE:
An Introduction to NetBeans 9
Let’s get started here in Chapter 6 by learning about the important features and characteristics of the
NetBeans 9 Integrated Development Environment (IDE) since that is the primary piece of software that you
are going to be using to create your Pro Java 9 Games and IoT Applications. Even though the Java 9 JDK is
the foundation for your Pro Java 9 Games as well as for the NetBeans 9 IDE, we will start on our Java game
coding journey by learning about NetBeans, which is the “front end” (or window through which you look at
and work on) for your Java Game Projects.
NetBeans 9 is the official IDE for the Java 9 JDK, and as such, it is what you will be using for this book.
That is not to say you cannot use another IDE, such as Eclipse or IntelliJ, which are the official IDEs for 32-bit
Android 4.4 and for 64-bit Android Studio 3.0, respectively. I prefer to use NetBeans 9 for my new media
apps and game development for my Java 9 and JavaFX games and IoT application software development
programming paradigm.
This is not only because NetBeans 9 can integrate third-party plug-ins, such as the JavaFX Scene
Builder from Gluon, but because it is an HTML5+CSS4+JS IDE, and I usually create everything I design for
my clientele using Java 9, JavaFX, Android 4.4, and Android 8.0, using HTML5 as well. I do this so that the
content works across or on closed and proprietary operating systems and platforms, which will hitherto
remain unnamed. As most of you know, I prefer open (source) software and platforms, as you might have
observed as recently as during Chapter 1 , as they are “inherently” open, free for commercial use, widely
available, supported by 99 percent of the major manufacturers, and do not require an approval process. or
that I publish applications for only one specific hardware platform or just one operating system.
It’s important to note that NetBeans 9 supports many other popular programming languages such
as C, C++, Groovy, and PHP, for instance. I use NetBeans 9 for HTML, CSS, and JavaScript web sites and
applications development, as NetBeans is rapidly moving to become a premiere Java, JavaFX, and HTML5
applications development environment.
The first thing we’ll do is take a look at what is new in NetBeans version 9. NetBeans 8.2 was released
in the fourth quarter of 2016, about a year and a half after Java 8 was released. This version number
synchronization is no coincidence, as NetBeans 8.0 was released right after Java 8, and NetBeans 9 will
probably be released right after Java 9 in the fourth quarter of 2017. We’ll look at why you’ll want to use
NetBeans 9, rather than an older version of NetBeans, during this chapter.
The next thing that we will do is take a look at the various attributes of the NetBeans 9 IDE that make it
an invaluable tool for Pro Java 9 Games Development. We will look at all the amazing features that it will be
providing to you during the course of this book; you will not be able to get hands-on experience with some
of these features during this chapter, as we also need to get started creating your game and therefore put the
bootstrap codebase or application infrastructure in place so that you can really give some of these NetBeans
9 IDE features a good workout.