NetBeans 6.5 milestone 1 available

If you want the latest and greatest of the NetBeans IDE, you can now download NetBeans 6.5 milestone 1 from the NetBeans web site. Some note worthy mobility enhancements are included in the upcoming version 6.5 release not to mention the much anticipated improvements in JavaScript support and of course PHP (I’ve tried out the early access and I’m eagerly awaiting for version 6.5.

The mobility enhancements that will be included in the upcoming NetBeans 6.5 release are data binding, custom component support and new SVG support.

Data binding allows for handling of mobile data from the Visual Designer. This should be a welcome feature that provides easier presentation of form data when creating J2ME applications.

Supported components in Milestone 1 are:

• TextField ( Text, Label)
• ImageItem (Image, Label)
• DateField (Date, Label)
• StringItem (Text, Label)
• rest of the Items ( Label)

With the addition of the ability to create custom components, it will make it easier to reuse code from within the Visual Mobile Designer.

The new SVG support will provide additional help in creating immersive user interfaces for J2ME applications. I’d really like to see more of this especially an increase in the simplicity of having to create user interfaces from a set of SVG screens. It would really be great to have an IDE that will ultimately allow a “paint and run” interface to creating compelling UI’s that are consistent and easy to use.

New components available in the SVG library:

• SVGForm
• Button

• RadioButton
• CheckBox
• ComboBox
• Label
• List
• Slider
• Spinner
• TextField

The three new enhancements would actually make it easier for developers to create J2ME software. Also, creating UI frameworks like LWUIT should be easier in terms of binding data to the UI.

Download NetBeans 6.5 milestone 1.