1 Introduction to NetBeans IDE

This chapter provides an overview of NetBeans IDE.

This chapter contains the following sections:

Section 1.1, "About NetBeans IDE"
Section 1.2, "NetBeans IDE Developer Resources"

1.1 About NetBeans IDE

NetBeans IDE is a free, open source, integrated development environment (IDE) that enables you to develop desktop, mobile and web applications. The IDE supports application development in various languages, including Java, HTML5, PHP and C++. The IDE provides integrated support for the complete development cycle, from project creation through debugging, profiling and deployment. The IDE runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and other UNIX-based systems.

The IDE provides comprehensive support for JDK 7 technologies and the most recent Java enhancements. It is the first IDE that provides support for JDK 7, Java EE 7, and JavaFX 2. The IDE fully supports Java EE using the latest standards for Java, XML, Web services, and SQL and fully supports the GlassFish Server, the reference implementation of Java EE.

1.2 NetBeans IDE Developer Resources

This section provides resources designed to get you up and running quickly on NetBeans IDE. There are various channels for learning more about the IDE and for providing feedback to the development team.

Table 1-1 NetBeans IDE Developer Resources

Resource	Description
netbeans.org	The web site for NetBeans IDE contains information and news for the community of NetBeans users: `https://www.netbeans.org`
NetBeans IDE Release Documentation	The IDE release documentation provides details on system requirements, supported technologies, installation instructions and known issues for the release: `https://netbeans.org/community/releases/74/`
NetBeans IDE Documentation and Tutorials	The Documentation section of the netbeans.org website contains screencasts and tutorials that provide step-by-step instructions for developing applications with NetBeans IDE. The list of current tutorials are located at: `https://netbeans.org/kb/index.html`
NetBeans IDE wiki	The NetBeans wiki provides additional documentation for the NetBeans community that is not included in the NetBeans User's Guide: `http://wiki.netbeans.org/Main_Page` You can find information on installation, configuration, licenses and trouble-shooting at the NetBeans User FAQs: `http://wiki.netbeans.org/NetBeansUserFAQ` You can find information on plugin development and NetBeans Platform API documentation at the NetBeans Developer FAQs: `http://wiki.netbeans.org/NetBeansDeveloperFAQ`