netbeans platform difficult to follow ?

Question

I went through http://platform.netbeans.org/tutorials/nbm-quick-start.html#lookup, but when I define the dependencies, it doesn't get the import statement immediately. Little exclamation marks appear and upon clicking it, it lets me import the interface. The last part of the tutorial cannot work.

Is the tutorial based on an older version ? For example, Lookup API cannot be found, but instead it's inside Utilities API.

I also find it extremely difficult to follow the modular concepts. Is there a reason why such strict modular design is enforced by netbeans platform ? Are there better written tutorials out there ?

Should I avoid netbeans platform for creating desktop applications ? would it be easier to not use it ?

Answer 1

NetBeans platform is a great one, I recommend you to read the "From pain to gain" http://netbeans.dzone.com/news/from-pain-gain-swing-and-netbe

I also recommend you to read the blog of Geertjan, a NetBeans evangelist (stackoverflow stops me from posting the url, so google it).

Answer 2

The Lookup API was moved into its own module with the current 6.9 Release and the tutorial is likely based on an older version. I agree with Vincent that Geertjans Blog is a good source for netbeans rcp related stuff.

I've got both the "Rich Client Programming: Plugging into the NetBeans Platform" and "The Definitive Guide to Netbeans Platform" Books and are quite happy with those. The first one is a bit more detailed about the core concepts, the second one focuses on real world problems and gives you a good overview and starting point.

It surely takes some time to understand the concepts of the netbeans platform, but once you got a basic knowledge how things are working, its a very consistent and helpful framework for any desktop application.

Developing modular applications is always a good idea. The quick start tutorial is somewhat over engineered, but it has to in order to show you the possibilities of the module system.

In the real world its up to you to decide wether you want to split you application into a bunch of modules or to simply build one big module with all the code in it. It depends of your application and if some of the code is reusable for other projects. Most of us developers are building our own com...util or org...tools Java Packages and we prefer to carry those from project to project...