Desktop and Web Application Development with Free State-of-the-Art Tools
Web and software developers must be very happy these days. They can choose from many different integrated development environments (IDE) and some of the best and most flexible are free to use and even open source.
One of the most popular IDE platforms is Eclipse. Eclipse is an open development platform. Developers can design and develop plugins for the Eclipse environment or create entire applications built with Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP). Eclipse has evolved into a large eco system that supports and uses the Eclipse platform.
Originally, Eclipse was mainly a Java platform, but today the ecosystem has provided solutions and plugins that support development in many programming, scripting and markup languages including for example PHP, Python and C++, XML, HTML, CSS and data tools.
The Netbeans platform, primarily known as a Java integrated development environment (IDE), and as such, it is in many ways a Java developer's companion and the first choice for many developers.
In a relatively short period Netbeans has become more than Java IDE, but an IDE that supports many scripting and programming languages for example Html, PHP, C++, Java Script and more.
Similar to Eclipse's RCP Netbeans provides a desktop application platform that is among the best and most popular for developing Swing desktop applications. Netbeans also provides a user interface for database driven applications and integrating and working with MySQL is easy with an auto-detecting feature.