Netbeans 5.5 litmus test..

Netbeans 5.5 is fast,responsive and makes best use of desktop real estate.

Netbeans (against Eclipse) .. warning: a bit of rant follows.

I created a new class, added a method and typed something like this

public void litmusTest() throws CustomException {

Red underline appears for "CustomException" - Error, yes accepted.
But where is the option to create "CustomException" on the fly?

In eclipse a bulb appears on the left gray marin, clicking which presents you options to create a "CustomException" class that extends Exception - some additional intelligence going on - and really very useful to a rapid dev. environment. WHERE IS THIS FEATURE IN NETBEANS? I had been looking for something similar across last 2-3 releases.

Another random problem.The File header documentation appears below the import statements by default.

something like ..

import java.io.File;
/*
* NetBeansLitmus.java
*
* Created on November 18, 2006, 2:07 PM
....


I am open to any IDE but I guess nothing wrong in being inclined to one that is more intutive..

Eclipse - better usability than ever

While I was stuck with an old version of WSAD at work, a lot of action had been happening on IDE world.

Netbeans is going to come with version 6.0, on which ton of editor improvements are promised.

Meanwhile, I had been doing my fun stuff on eclipse. I have version 3.2.1, and there are very noticable improvements in simple things as:

the intelligent auto completion/import feature when used for commonly used class as "List" inserts Java instead of alphabetically preferred java.awt.List. Who is using java.awt.List anyway? - way to go.

Somehow, I always liked slickness of swt over swing in case of IDEs. But still, I am waiting to see what netbeans 6.0 has got. The matisse GUI builder in Netbeans was an unprecedented improvement in Java IDE history and it for sure has whet my appetite.

iTunes Copy protection "Cracked"

The breaking news was "iTunes Copy Protection "cracked""
The person who cracked it is none other than DVD Jon
Now, I am wondering what is Apple going to do about this. I haven't read any news about Apples reaction on this yet. But I strongly feel that noone can stop music piracy. If a person can play song on a device, he can create a copy of it by 100 different ways. At the least, he can put the output jack in to a hi-fi stereo recorder and create an excellent copy. Or one can develop programs that will grab data from sound outpt device on your computer and create audio files.
Now if he is free to do that or not is a different question.