Mini review of Sun’s NetBeans IDE 6.0.1

We used the NetBeans IDE in a Java course I just took.

It seems like a pretty helpful IDE, but as usual, I can see its disadvantages much more clearly.

Disadvantages

• When you start adding new code, loads of ‘errors’ immediately appear in the margin. The whole syntax checking mechanism *should* wait wait several seconds after you’ve finished typing before it checks your code. Otherwise it’s just distracting.
• Despite checking your code too much, there are circumstances where an ‘error’ icon stays stuck on your class file icon in the Projects tab, but there is no error marked in the file. it goes away when you do a clean and compile, but I still consider this a bug. [update: is this a notification of a compile error?]
• There doesn’t seem to be a way to add an existing file to your project (update: There is. You have to right-click copy it from the files tab, and paste it into your project. I was looking for a drag option).
• The auto-suggest-methods doesn’t work if you start typing the first few letters of the method too quickly after the dot.
• There are too many colours and flashy things.
• It doesn’t fix the case for you like .NET

Advantages

• It does all the hard work of renaming and moving files between packages for you.
• If you make any structural changes or rename key files/classes, it automatically refactors the code for you, even allowing a preview so you can see the extent of proposed changes.
• Integrates with JUnit, and produces a set of automatic tests, based on all your existing classes and methods. Sweet!
• Ctrl + the arrow-keys counts capitals as word boundaries for easier navigation (e.g. BufferedWriter).
• If a class is not imported, type Ctrl-space with the cursor at the end of it, to import the relevant package (does not work if cursor is at any other point!)
• You can click on the run-time exception in the output window and be taken to where it occurred in the code.
• it has cool WYSIWYG / .NET-style forms building stuff for all your GUI needs. It then ‘protects’ the GUI code so you can’t change it by accident.
• it has a Windows | Services menu where you can browse databases, start Tomcat in debug mode, etc.
• Easily add in abstract methods required when implementing an interface.

What is the best mobile phone for playing videos?

Or more specifically, which smartphone can play mp4 video and divx movies without skipping?

My SPV M3100 cannot, and apparently neither can the HTC TyTN II (which looks startlingly similar to the M3100). They both run the Windows Mobile operating system.

Does anyone know the answer?

I don’t know much about video formats, so I don’t know if there can be much variation between mp4 formats.

Windows Vista is really annoying

• When you put in a blank DVD and choose to open it in Explorer for writing, the default setting is some kind of Windows Vista filesystem, that can only be read from Windows Vista. I have to change it to “normal filesystem” every single time. Not such a great job done on making Windows more user-friendly.
• When you drag files onto the blank DVD, it tells you if they will fit or not. This would be a great feature, if only it worked consistently. Half the time it says they won’t fit straight away. The rest of the time it lets me put the files there and then errors later on, after I tell it to burn.
• Ordinary file operations, like deleting files have become much slower. Also, a confusing information box appears, where the progress bars bear even less relation to reality than in previous versions of Windows. I didn’t think this was actually possible, but they have made some of the most common Windows operations even less pleasant.
• If you go to the Properties of a hard drive and turn off “index this drive for faster searching”, it has to apply some kind of attribute *to every single file on the hard drive*. This takes forever. Idiots.
• There’s a new bar at the top of Windows Explorer, that I don’t understand. It often makes a ‘progress bar’ move across from left to right behind the current directory name. Often the bar gets slower and slower as it moves, until it seems like it will never reach the other side.
• It’s always popping up an error message saying that “COM Surrogate has stopped working”. Yes I know people have described ways to “fix” this, but I’ve tried them and they don’t work for me. And anyway, that isn’t the point. I shouldn’t have to fix it in the first place.
• Also, sometimes when I drag files onto a blank DVD, the “copying” dialog box just stays there on the screen and doesn’t go away, as if the files aren’t getting copied. The progress bar area is just blank. I left it overnight once, and it didn’t disappear. And when I click the cancel button, nothing happens – the box is still stuck there, except now the cancel button is greyed out. Totally useless, and very typical of Windows.
• Oh yes, and when that “authorisation” system kicks in, where the screen goes dim and you have to click to allow certain programs to change windows settings — why does the entire screen go blank for a second before the dialog box appears? It makes it feel as if the monitor has a loose connection or something, instead of making a smooth transition.