Chapter 6 ■ Setting Up YoUr Java 9 iDe: an introDUCtion to netBeanS 9
There’s also much improved profiler integration with the rest of the NetBeans IDE; in addition, there
is a more polished profile menu, a new action called the Attach to Project action has been added, and
Profile Class and Profile Method actions have been added into the Code Navigator. We will be taking a look
at the NetBeans 9 Profiler later during this book, when we need to implement system memory and CPU
optimizations into your Java 9 game.
Primary Attributes of NetBeans 9: An Intelligent IDE
In this section I will give you a comprehensive overview of all the amazingly powerful features of NetBeans
9 so that you understand just how powerful this IDE tool is that you have installed on your development
workstation and how important it is that you master all of its features so that you can wield all of this power
as a Pro Java 9 games or IoT applications developer. The IDE is the interface between the Java 9 code you are
writing using the JavaFX APIs and your computer; it allows you to visualize your code, organize it into logical
methods, test it on your computer, profile how optimally it is functioning relative to your system memory
and processor cycles, and package it for distribution on the Internet via web sites or as a stand-alone
application for Windows, OS/X, Linux, or OpenSolaris for Desktop Computers or even as an embedded
device application for Android OS or Tizen OS. Ideally, iOS, Opera OS, and Chrome OS will also move to
support Java 9 applications by 2018 since Android and Tizen already have the largest market share for
Java-on-top-of-Linux-kernel (Android OS) and HTML5-on-top-of-Linux-kernel (Tizen OS) platforms.
NetBeans 9 Is Intelligent: Put Your Code Editing in Hyperdrive
Although it’s true that an IDE is quite similar to a word processor, only optimized for creating modular
code constructs rather than writing business documents, an integrated development environment such as
NetBeans 9 is able to assist developers significantly more in their programming work process than a word
processor will help an author in their writing and document authoring work process. Word processors are
mostly for formatting text to make it look presentable using desktop publishing features, correcting spelling
errors, and correcting grammar and sentence structure.
For instance, your word processor does not make suggestions in real time regarding the content that
you’re writing for your business, whereas the NetBeans 9 IDE will actually look at what you are coding while
you are writing that code in real time and help you finish writing the Java code statements and Java code
construct that you are coding as you create them. Therefore, NetBeans 9.0 could be said to have a higher
artificial intelligence quotient than work processors, such as Microsoft Office, Corel WordPerfect, Apache
Open Office, or Ubuntu Libre Office currently feature.
One of the things that NetBeans will do is to finish lines of Java code for you, as well as applying color to
the code statements to highlight different types of constructs (classes, methods, variables, constants, arrays,
references), as shown in Figure 6-2. NetBeans will apply the industry-standard code indenting to make
Java code much easier to read, for both yourself and for the other members of your Pro Java 9 game and IoT
application development team.