Oracle released NetBeans 8 on March 25, the same day it formally introduced Java 8 via a webinar.
A week earlier, Mark Reinhold, chief architect of the Java Platform Group, had announced that JDK 8 reached GA. It's been a productive spring season for the Java development community.
NetBeans 8 contains a number of Java 8 enhancements, including code analyzer and editor enhancements for profiles, lambdas, streams and method references. It also also includes support for Java SE Embedded to deploy, run and debug application on an embedded device, such as Raspberry Pi. Support is provided for the forthcoming Java ME 8 specification as well.
NetBeans 8 also contains many new HTML5 features. It has enhanced code completion for AngularJS, Knockout and other JavaScript frameworks. It has Karma and Grunt integration, as well as live web preview and Chrome Developer Tools integration. There have been many enhancements to its Java EE support, Java Editor, PHP Editor and Versioning System.
The NetBeans IDE 8.0 Information page has more details on what's included in the release. They mention it has PrimeFaces CRUD generation, Facelets code generation, Tomcat 8.0 / TomEE support, and Maven performance improvements. They do not mention it supports Python. There are several screencasts to help you learn more about NetBeans 8.
- Smart Migration to JDK 8
- PrimeFaces Development with NetBeans IDE 8
- NetBeans IDE Support for Java ME 8
Geertjan Wielenga recently wrote about NetBeans 8's AngularJS support in a blog post, titled Integrated AngularJS Development. Commenters on Wielenga's blog post were enthusiastic:
- "OK, that's insanely cool!"
- "This is awesome, I can finally use my favorite IDE for web development!"
- "That's really impressive. I might switch back to Netbeans in the future - AngularJS support is really nice. Awesome features. Great job!"
I asked NetBeans users, are there any improvements in NetBeans 8 you really like? Responses included performance, WildFly support, AngularJS support, Android development, SCSS support, PrimeFaces CRUD and improved Maven / Git support.
NetBeans 8 has a slew of new features that aim to please the modern Java web developer, as well as embedded and mobile developers. If you're not using NetBeans, are these features compelling enough for you to switch?