Netbeans

Netbeans is an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing with Java, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby, Groovy, C, C++, Scala, Clojure, and other languages.

From Wikipedia article:

"The NetBeans IDE is written in Java and can run anywhere a compatible JVM is installed, including Windows, Mac OS, Linux, and Solaris. A JDK is required for Java development functionality, but is not required for development in other programming languages."

Tips and tricks

Note: The global netbeans.conf /usr/share/netbeans/etc/netbeans.conf will be overwritten during updates. To keep changes add them to your local netbeans.conf ~/.netbeans/<ver>/etc/netbeans.conf (you will need to create the etc dir and the .conf file).

• Settings in local version of netbeans.conf override the same settings in the global copy of the file.
• Command-line options override settings in either of the configuration files.

Font antialiasing in Netbeans

Netbeans Specifically

Add -J-Dswing.aatext=TRUE -J-Dawt.useSystemAAFontSettings=on to the 'netbeans_default_options' line of your netbeans.conf file.

Java Generally

See Java#Better font rendering .

Look and feel

To change Netbeans look and feel, add switch --laf yourLookAndFeel to IDE command line by appending it to ‘netbeans_default_options’ section of /usr/share/netbeans/etc/netbeans.conf or editing .desktop file with which you launch Netbeans.

For GTK: --laf com.sun.java.swing.plaf.gtk.GTKLookAndFeel

For Nimbus: --laf com.sun.java.swing.plaf.nimbus.NimbusLookAndFeel

Troubleshooting

OpenJDK vs Sun's JDK

Netbeans 7.0-1 will not ALWAYS work with OpenJDK. Some reported issues are:

• Starting - In some cases, netbeans will not start.
• Installation - The .sh script provided by netbeans will not launch wizard (any proofs?).
• JavaFX module does not work (see FS#29843).

Glassfish server - Can`t download Glassfish server I/O Exception

If you are trying add new Glassfish server, you can`t download the server. Netbeans returns

I/O Exception: http://java.net/download/glassgish/3.0.1/release/glassfish-3.0.1-ml.zip

Solution is:

• Download GlassFish Server Open Source Edition manualy from official site, actual link is http://download.java.net/glassfish/3.0.1/release/glassfish-3.0.1-ml.zip
• Extract from zip to any location

Netbeans doesn't start after its first start

If you receive a message like this when executing from terminal:

# netbeans -h

 Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/jre/lib/i386/libsplashscreen.so: libgif.so.4: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

You have two options:

• You can start Netbeans using the --nosplash option:

# netbeans --nosplash

• Or, install the missing library (libungif), then starting Netbeans as usual will work.

Arch forum thread

Netbeans starts with a completely grey window

See Java#Impersonate Another Window Manager

This may not be quite 100% out of date; the problem occurred while using NetBeans 7.2, OpenJDK 7.u7_2.3.2-2, "$ java -version" reporting 1.7.0_07. The following is robbed from Awesome's wiki (although I experienced the problem using Xmonad), which fixed my all-grey window problem:

$ _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING=1; export _JAVA_AWT_WM_NONREPARENTING