Forte For Java

There is an OpenSource version of Forte by its old name NetBeans: http://www.netbeans.org

I would like to introduce you to Forte for Java from http://www.sun.com/forte/ffj/. It is such a wonderfull Java IDE take my word for that. I have been working with it for 1 year . I tried all others ( JBuilder, VisualCafe', KawaIde, JavaWorkShop? and VisualAge ). But nothing rocks like Forte. It is a free software with OpenAPI's so that you can customize, design and integrate your own modules. And supports enterprise and distributed debugging. (in particular -CORBA, EJB, JSP, JNDI, JPDA, RMI, Servlets, XML, HTML, Beans, Swing, CVS etc..)

-- SeshKumar (i am not related to Forte in any way except that I used it and am still using it)

I tried it briefly. It has some nice features, but it takes 20 times the memory of my Enterprise VisualAge, which seems excessive to me. Isn't it weird that VisualAge doesn't qualify as BloatWare any more...

Can anyone put up a comparison between Forte and JBuilder? I did look at Forte briefly but it didn't seem as easy to use as JBuilder. -- GlenStampoultzis

Forte is built over modular programming. What does this mean to the user is that he can add his own modules or at any time install or uninstall any modules he doesn't require. And forte has published the API for these modules. To let you know how easy it is to write modules .. I made my own module to deploy ejbs on to InpriseAppServer by modifing one of the modules supplied by the forte.

The other things I like most about the forte is its design totaly relies on JavaBeans concept. What does this mean to an end user ..What ever you see on the IDE is a bean so this means at any time I can write my own bean and attach it to the IDE (I can add Visual Beans and Non Visual Beans to the component tool and use these beans in my projects.. if you are guy with reuse you like this very much,you can also make your own tool bars and add them to the IDE.. after using and modifiying the IDE for an year now my IDE looks totally different from the one I downloaded at first ..evolution ah!).

The one thing I am more impressed by the forte is that it doesn't add any new code or proprietary code to your files when you are using the visual builder (JBuilder and other IDE's I used add new stuff when I use thier form editors).And the form editors that come with forte are the easiest and more functional.

And last but the least is the project management system. When you create projects in Kawa or in JBuilder or in VJ++ or in some other IDE they want your files to be at some defined location this is because they are not using the links to to your files in the projects instead are directly using the files. Forte uses links to your files or directories and not the files or directories directly in the project. This means in the same project I can place links to as many number of directories,jar files and java files I want and not bother about where theses things reside. And even after some time I change the location of these directories and files I only have to update the links in my project. Other features are making your own executors,debuggers,compiliers etc.(Very useful when working with Visibroker).

Creating your own Object types,Storing search results and search strings,using an inbuilt database explorer to test drivers and stuff,support for jndi,jsp debugger( including debugging of specific beans in the JSP),remote debugger( more flexible can be configured to debug ejb's, debug external process like servers etc),ftp deployment,full CVS support and so on..

The major complaint about forte is its memory consumption. If you need it all you better buy more RAM . RAM is very cheap (128MB is for $100). And when the IDE is for free why not go and buy more RAM

--SeshKumar

Other complaints about Forte include

The user interface is slow and buggy. It often gets corrupted, which requires wiping it clean with another window. It can also get into invalid states, and so leave dead windows around that cannot be killed.
The internal compiler barfs on perfectly valid code. But using the external compiler is very slow. Also, the fast compiler generates invalid code, and so must be disabled (see the Forte web site for more information).
The tool insists on generating class files in the same directory as the source code.

However, if you can live with those drawbacks, Forte is much better than BorlandJbuilder, and much much much better than VisualCafe. It's the best IDE I've found for developing Java in an environment that uses other text-based tools such as version control systems, etc.

ForteForJava has a built in WWW browser and Forte comes with its Java source. Has somebody tried, to build a WysiwygWiki with it?

Let's factor this out to WysiwygWikiWithForteForJava, before this page gets to long.

You can use cross directory compiler(this is a module) if you want to generate class files in a different directory other than source directory --SeshKumar

Where can this be obtained? It is not part of the standard distribution.

The cross-directory compilation function is now part of the standard functionality of the compilers. The cross-directory compiler is now closed.

How much memory would be reasonable? I have about 200MB at the moment. Should that cover it?

--GlenStampoultzis

Anything more than 196MB is enough. But set the heap size correctly to reflect your memory.

One thing to note: the memory requirement seems to fluctuate (due to gc, I guess). It goes from 50MB at one extreme to less than 10 MB at the other.

I get by on my home machine with 192 MB quite happily. My work machine needs more grunt, but that's because I'm running multiple application servers at 40MB a pop each...

Forte vs JBuilder? It's different. For one thing, on my system at least, JBuilder was a lot slower. Forte's not quite as intuitive, either... because everything is modular, finding where to tinker with a module setting (say, changing the compilation directory) can take a bit of exploring. But within about a week of making the switch from JBuilder to Forte, I was working about 25% faster. Now, that's probably closer to about 50%.

Big plus of Forte over JBuilder? A) Project Management. Project Management sucked in JBuilder (IMHO). B) Extensibility. Forte has a very easy-to-learn OpenAPI set, which I found much cleaner compared to JBuilder's. All the modules are written to that OpenAPI... no hidden secrets. Oh, and Sun just released the source to Forte (minus a few third-party bits).

Big plus of JBuilder over Forte? The Parser Database in Forte doesn't automatically update when you change your classpath or recompile your code. You have to do it manually. JBuilder, at least, does it automatically. (This is the first change I plan to make when I get time to get my head around the source code).

--- RobertWatkins.

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