Oracle unveils NetBeans IDE 7.2

Two months on from a beta release, Oracle have let the latest version of their multilingual IDE loose into the wild by unveiling NetBeans IDE 7.2. Within that time, they’ve bolstered an already-stocked offering with some further intriguing tidbits.

With the free, open source IDE, developers can craft web, enterprise, desktop and mobile applications for the Java platform, coding in a variety of languages. These include  PHP, JavaScript, C/C++, Scala and Clojure.

Whilst much of this release is devoted to enhancing performance through wiser project scanning, the biggest coup for the IDE is the native integration of FindBugs – the popular, open source Java-based static analysis tool. Now NetBeans users get the ammunition they need to kill the most elusive of bugs earlier on in the development lifecycle.

Editor tinkering further enhances developer productivity by adding a new bookmark manager, search bar and JPA code completion plus general refactoring. NetBeans has also been given a kickstart, with the team reporting a 10 percent improvement in average startup times thanks to the work done in this release.

As for the supporting lineup, the latest JavaFX features make their debut here, and the most welcome newcomer is visual editor SceneBuilder. Groovy 1.8.6 is now supported, so we’ll have to wait some time yet for Groovy 2.0 to make its appearance.

“NetBeans IDE 7.2’s enhanced performance and responsiveness continues to improve the Java developer experience,” said Ted Farrell, chief architect and senior vice president, Tools and Middleware, Oracle. “The new capabilities, which resulted from collaboration with users, can help developers write code quickly and efficiently for their web, enterprise, desktop and mobile applications.”

If you’re a fan of this particular IDE, download it here, and be sure to check out some supporting screenshots and tutorials for the release. There’s no denying that whilst Oracle don’t really do anything radical with NetBeans, its success lies in the way they keep it ticking over with regular updates.