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| <title>Testimonials</title> |
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| <p class="align-right font-13"> |
| <p class="align-right font-13"> |
| <span class="green">|</span> <a href="./">Home</a> <span class="green">|</span> <a href="description.html">Description</a> <span class="green">|</span> <a href="https://platform.netbeans.org/screenshots.html">Showcase</a> |
| </p> |
| <p><p>Heard about the NetBeans Platform and curious |
| about what actual customers say about it? Read on! |
| </p> |
| <table> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Dale Thoma, |
| from Saab Grintek Systems, contracted to the South African National Defence Force</h2> |
| <p>Of the competing products, the NetBeans Platform proved to be the |
| most straightforward for implementation. The fact that the NetBeans |
| Platform relies only on Ant scripts to build contributed greatly to our |
| choice. Also, the NetBeans Platform's use of pure Swing (as opposed to Eclipse’s |
| use of SWT) means that integration with other products is seamless. |
| The NetBeans Platform does not force the design architecture to adhere to any |
| constraints such as the OSGi framework - Eclipse and (optionally Spring RCP) make use of OSGi. |
| <p>Ease of implementation in |
| the NetBeans Platform allows intermediate level programmers to partake in the |
| development process with less training. The NetBeans Platform was more pure in |
| using vanilla Java as opposed to Eclipse; this allows us to migrate |
| to other future technology frameworks should there be a need. The use |
| of Swing and vanilla Java makes the NetBeans Platform the best-suited product for |
| OS independence i.e. running on both Windows and Linux platforms. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/sandf-netbeans-platform">More about Dale Thoma</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://kitt.co.za/">More about Saab Grintek Systems</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
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| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Tom Wheeler, |
| from Object Computing, while contracted to Boeing, in the US</h2> |
| <p>When I started working on my desktop project, I came |
| up with a list of more than twenty specific features |
| that the framework would need to support. I then examined |
| the available frameworks to see how well they matched these |
| criteria and a colleague suggested that I add the NetBeans |
| Platform to my candidate list. I'm glad I did because it |
| had more of the features we needed than any of the others. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="https://platform.netbeans.org/articles/nbm_interview_tom.html">More about Tom Wheeler</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/boeing-netbeans-platform.html">More about Boeing on the NetBeans Platform</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Emilian Bold, |
| from Alcatel Timisoara, in Romania</h2> |
| <p>I enjoy the fact that everything is already made: menu items that |
| enable/disable, toolbar buttons, modules that can be updated from the |
| web. For me, once a desktop application gets an (auto)update feature, |
| it's in a whole other segment. There is so much useful code there |
| that it would have taken ages to write it yourself. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="https://platform.netbeans.org/articles/nbm_interview_emilian.html">More about Emilian Bold</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Daoud AbdelMonem Faleh, |
| Independent Contractor, in Tunisia</h2> |
| <p>Recently, I released my first ever commercial desktop project based on the NetBeans Platform. |
| For this application, I embedded JavaDB into the NetBeans Platform, while reporting was done with |
| JasperReports. The window system the NetBeans Platform provides, together with the wizard-oriented operations, |
| are great and my client is really happy with what they've ended up with. |
| <p>They also appreciate the modular architecture, enabling the agile methodology that drove the |
| implementation. I've been able to add functionality, withdraw others, and update according to |
| customer needs, without breaking any of the working parts! And that is just "Wow." |
| <p>Overall, it was a great experience and, as I said, this is my first ever desktop application, opening |
| up a whole new horizon with new opportunities. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/news/tunisian-national-order">More about Daoud AbdelMonem Faleh</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>David Beer, |
| Independent Contractor, in England</h2> |
| <p>I first started using the NetBeans Platform |
| when my requirements for the my application |
| changed. I was writing the standard window |
| layout every time, and I had started created a new application |
| which would also take a long time to finish, so I |
| decided to look for a framework to use as a starting point.</p> |
| <p>I was already using the the NetBeans IDE |
| which is built on the NetBeans Platform, so |
| I looked at the NetBeans Platform and the Eclipse |
| RCP. I wanted a cross-platform application |
| and the UI needed to be |
| the same on all operating systems. This ruled Eclipse RCP |
| out as it isn't Swing-based, but the NetBeans Platform is.</p> |
| <p>My other big requirement was to have a modular |
| application so that anyone can add functionality |
| or extend the application easily and with the |
| update center in NetBeans this worked well.</p> |
| <p>I will be continuing to use the NetBeans Platform |
| and to push its use where I can.</p> |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.beerfamily.selfip.com/software/softwarepcm.html">More about David Beer</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Ibon Urrutia, |
| from MTEC, in Marbella, Spain</h2> |
| <p>From my point of view the benefit of the NetBeans |
| Platform isn't a specific module, but its modular architecture: |
| Goodbye JAR Hell! You can safely change some of the platform |
| modules (as we did with the XML editor) to create your own |
| personal platform. Updates and dependencies are managed by |
| the platform. Communication mechanism between modules is |
| really decoupled; unit tests are easily performed; functional |
| testing is like writing a simple script. These are benefits |
| you discover when developing a complex application and you |
| realize that in the NetBeans Platform you have the holy |
| grail of great development: modularity. |
| <p>But if I have to mention some modules, I do appreciate the Project API, |
| which is so comprehensive that our TagsMe project didn't need one |
| nor an ant build.xml in order to have an active Java module. |
| The FileSystem API, a wonderful abstraction that allows you to |
| access xml tags as folders and files in a file system. And |
| also as I said, it's wonderful that a programmer with so little |
| experience in Swing can develop an IDE (one of the hardest desktop |
| applications you can think of) in a few months. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-urrutia.html">More about Ibon Urrutia</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.mdtec.net/">More about MDTEC</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Jeremy Moore, |
| from ThinkingRock, in Australia</h2> |
| <p>We first just built ThinkingRock without using any |
| platform at all, but soon realized that we were re-inventing |
| the wheel in many aspects. For example, there was no need for |
| us to implement our own drag-and-drop when that problem had |
| been solved already. We then looked at various platforms, |
| with the main contenders at the time being Eclipse and NetBeans. |
| <p>We first looked at using Eclipse, but found it lacking. |
| Our main reason for discarding it was their poor implementation |
| of the Standard Widget Toolkit. Basically, it worked great on |
| Windows, but not so great on the Mac. And, support for SWT |
| was either buggy or non-existent on some platforms. |
| (In fairness, the situation is probably a bit better today). |
| <p>We wanted our application to work on as many platforms as possible, |
| therefore we felt we needed a 100% Java solution. We also evaluated |
| other platforms, but most were just getting started. They either |
| lacked some functionality we really wanted, such as a plug-in architecture. |
| Either that, or they were not mature enough. |
| </p> |
| <p>The NetBeans Platform is 100% Java, and has the plug-in architecture |
| that we needed, for starters. Also, it's now a mature IDE. I like the |
| fact that it's open source and it's continually improving. Also, |
| the NetBeans community spirit is a real plus. |
| <p><b><a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/articles/netbeans-platform-provides-pre">More about Jeremy Moore</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.trgtd.com.au/">More about ThinkingRock</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Anton Epple, |
| from Eppleton, in Munich, Germany</h2> |
| <p>I like the NetBeans Platform in general. When I started |
| working with it, I discovered much more functionality to |
| reuse than I would ever have expected. About four years ago |
| I had to write my own rich-client |
| platform with an application launcher, splash screen, |
| update and download managers, preferences, proxy handling |
| and so on. With the NetBeans Platform all that stuff is |
| there for free. And there is so much more like the Window |
| system, the Lookup API, Projects, the FileSystems API, |
| Wizards, you name it. Working with the NetBeans Platform |
| really speeds up development for rich-client platform |
| applications. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="https://platform.netbeans.org/articles/nbm_interview_toni.html">More about Anton Epple</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://eppleton.sharedhost.de/">More about Eppleton</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Marek Kliś, |
| from MCD Electronics, in Zywiec, Poland</h2> |
| <p>Thanks to the NetBeans Platform, I was able to concentrate mainly on |
| the application logic, since the NetBeans Platform made the |
| various GUI mechanisms available to me. For example, I found the |
| Visual Library very helpful for my purposes. The Visual Library provides |
| widgets that helps me illustrate the connections between system |
| elements in a very simple way. For this reason, the system configuration |
| has now become very easy and fast. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/news/netbeans-platform-enables">More about Marek Kliś</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.mcd.com.pl/index_eng.html">More about MCD Electronics</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Tonny Kohar, |
| from Sketsa, in Surabaya, Indonesia</h2> |
| <p>When the buzzword "RCP" came out, we started evaluating the |
| available RCPs. At that time, we didn't know that the NetBeans Platform |
| was available, because to us there was only NetBeans IDE, so naturally |
| we looked at Eclipse RCP. During the evaluation period, we found that Eclipse |
| RCP was too tightly integrated with SWT. In order to fully utilize or derive |
| benefits from Eclipse RCP, we would have had to use SWT to create a Workspace |
| manager, with menus and dialogs, preferences, options, etc. Although we found |
| that we could choose to not use SWT, we found that doing so meant losing the |
| benefits of RCP. It would only have left us with the OSGi modular framework, |
| since the rest of the RCP features, such as the integrated Workspace or |
| Window manager, requires the use of SWT.</p> |
| <p>What we needed was the whole application framework, including menus, |
| preferences, workspace system, windows and dialogs system, etc, and it |
| had to be Swing because our application is Swing-based. Luckily, not long |
| after that, NetBeans folks started to publicize more heavily the spinning |
| of NetBeans Platform from the IDE. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="https://platform.netbeans.org/articles/nbm_interview_tonny.html">More about Tonny Kohar</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.kiyut.com/">More about Sketsa</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Tanja Drüke, |
| from Genomatix, in Munich, Germany</h2> |
| <p>What I like about the NetBeans Platform is that it provides |
| your basic framework so that you can concentrate |
| on the actual core of your application. The wizards make it simple to |
| add menu items, toolbar buttons, windows, option panels, to set up an |
| update center and so forth. |
| <p>And with "Matisse", the Swing GUI builder, |
| you can visually design your components, which facilitates layout |
| management. Also, the integrated preview is very nice to test |
| the resize behavior on the fly. |
| <p>The NetBeans Platform has many useful APIs to create |
| wizards (Dialogs API), projects (Project API, Project UI API), |
| custom file types (File System API, Datasystems API, Nodes API), |
| and graphical representations (Visual Library), just to name a few... |
| <p>So all in all, you don't have to reinvent the wheel for the development |
| of basic application functionality. |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.genomatix.de/">More about Genomatix</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Tim Dudgeon & Petr Hamernik, |
| from Instant JChem, in Budapest, Hungary</h2> |
| <p>We use the NetBeans Platform because it is an extensible modular application built on Java. |
| The window management side of things: the way you can put together parts of the application |
| and get all the benefits of the windowing system; the APIs and building wizards with them; |
| these were all very important to us. Eclipse has its own native widgets, |
| UI and visual components, which were difficult to manipulate. |
| NetBeans is Java-based and has a straight-forward framework that was very helpful |
| in creating a Swing-heavy application like Instant JChem. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/instantjchem.html">More about Tim Dudgeon & Petr Hamernik</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://chemaxon.com/product/ijc.html">More about Instant JChem</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Oliver Rettig, |
| from ORAT, in Karlsruhe, Germany</h2> |
| <p>I have developed desktop applications for scientific research for |
| more than ten years. Mostly I've been interested in algorithms. |
| At the start, I tried to create plain Swing-based GUIs, but with less |
| and less success since I was not able to establish a |
| GUI-framework of the kind of quality needed for it to |
| be successfully maintained over time. |
| |
| <p>That's when I switched to an Ant-based user interface. My algorithms |
| were encapsulated in Ant tasks and with Ant build scripts I controlled |
| the data processing. Via NetBeans IDE, I had access to these scripts. |
| |
| <p>Some years ago I discovered the existence of the NetBeans Platform. |
| I recalled all the problems and the lack of features involved in my old plain Swing |
| experiments. It didn't take me long to get |
| enthusiastic about the NetBeans Platform. It turned out to |
| have been created to fit my needs exactly. |
| <p>Currently I am doing my PhD in in the field of medical |
| motion (gait) analysis. I am developing a very large |
| modeling application, called Nimue, based on the NetBeans Platform. |
| I hope to finish this work this year by publishing |
| an open source community version of this software. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.nimue-platform.de/">More about Nimue</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Fabrizio Giudici, |
| from Tidalwave, in Italy</h2> |
| <p>The added value is that it's Swing. Before the NetBeans experience, |
| I had looked quickly at Eclipse RCP; at the time it was probably the only |
| viable framework for developing desktop applications. But I hated the idea |
| of learning a new set of APIs: Eclipse is based on its own SWT... and throwing |
| away my knowledge, even though limited at the time, of the Swing APIs. |
| <p>Furthermore, I felt that if you deal with photography you need to provide |
| a pleasant user interface beyond mere effectiveness. Swing had a good foundation |
| in this area, even though developing a new Look-and-Feel was a pain initially. |
| Today Swing provides a huge set of Look-and-Feel choices (Substance, Synthetica, |
| Nimrod, to mention a few) and when Jasper Potts finishes his new Nimbus Look-and-Feel |
| and the related design tools we'll go another leap forward. And |
| with the tremendous evangelizing effort of people such as Romain Guy, |
| people tdday should have no doubt about Swing's ability to realize rich clients. |
| As far as I know, there's nothing of the sort in the SWT world. |
| </p> |
| <p><b><a href="https://netbeans.org/community/articles/interviews/dreamprofile-giudici.html">More about Fabrizio Giudici</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.tidalwave.it/">More about Tidalwave</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| <tr> |
| <td class="valign-top"/> |
| <td class="b-bottom-dashed f-page-cell"> |
| <h2>Aljoscha Rittner, |
| from Sepix, in Germany</h2> |
| <p>Well, I've used the NetBeans IDE since the end of the '90's and have |
| been, since that time, closely following the open sourcing of the related APIs |
| into its current form as a fully-fledged Swing framework. With the 6.0 release |
| I saw the time had come to migrate my current Swing projects to a new level |
| of technology. The old plain Swing CRM system could function better if it were |
| based on a modern desktop platform. |
| <p>Many components, which I had already programmed, were no longer modern |
| and were increasingly difficult to maintain. I simply didn't have the |
| time to redo all the basic things all over again. With a framework, such as |
| that offered by the NetBeans Platform, I wanted to save a large portion |
| of my development time and energy. |
| <p><b><a href="http://netbeans.dzone.com/news/interview-porting-a-crm-applic">More about Aljoscha Rittner</a></b>. |
| <p><b><a href="http://www.sepix.de/index.html">More about Sepix</a></b>. |
| </td> |
| </tr> |
| </table> |
| </body> |
| </html> |
