NetBeans vs. Ready To Program

Ready to Program vs. NetBeans

So which IDE is better?

Category	Ready to Program	NetBeans
Version of JDK	Not the current version, we can't run all of the java code we find on the net.	Current version. All new widgets can be imported.
Adding Widgets to your Frame	Slow and painful. Build in all lines yourself.	Quick and easy. Drag and drop.
Speed	Quick. The program is compact and simple. It is basically just a text editor.	Slllloooowwww. Your whole computer slows down if NetBeans is running. It is brutal over the network. NetBeans has a lot of objects beings passed back and forth and it has a GUI.
Help Files	All of the JDK classes are included.	Information on NetBeans is included and a referal to Sun Website (for JDK classes). Alot is missing in the NetBeans help and it can be very vague.
Cost	About $30.00 (I think)	Nothing. It is free. Sun Supports it.
Other tools	Nothing.	ANT which builds the jar (exe) files. A line by line debugger. A java doc compiler. It autocomments for you in generated code.

The answer is that it depends.

When you were in grade 10 working on programs that where 22 lines long, the slowness and overhead costs of the GUI in NetBeans would have made programming painful. NetBeans is also really slow to load and grade 10s have no patience when they first start programming.

However, when you are creating complex GUIs, why work hard? It is just tedious once you understand it. You might as well use NetBeans.

Finally, why does it need to be one or the other? You could build the GUI in NetBeans and then flip over to Ready to build some other parts. Use them together to get the best features of both.

Many other Java IDEs exist. BlueJ and Dr. Java are ones that my students have used in the past, but there are many others. Take a look and download some others. You might find some you like better.

Questions:

Make a Venn Diagram to compare NetBeans to Ready to Program. Add things that I don't have on my chart above. I am really interested in the category in the middle - characteristics that NetBeans and Ready to Program have in common.
Visual Basic has a GUI builder like NetBeans does. When I was working at Waterloo, we found that students who had been programming in Visual Basic - using only the GUI builder - knew nothing about programming. In essence, if you had a grade 12 programming credit in C or Java, you would do fine in first year programming; if your grade 12 credit was taught using Visual Basic, you were in trouble. Why might this be? What are the benefits of learning to program in a text editor like Ready to Program?
Open Blue J on the school applications. Use the "poke" technique and the "toy project" technique to learn it.

The poke technique is essentially trial and error.
- Click EVERYWHERE. On the edges, buttons, background, etc. See what happens.
- Then try double clicking everywhere. Option clicking. Control clicking. Right clicking.
- Poke around in the menus.
The toy project technique is basically doing a small project to get a feel for things.
- The Magic 8 Ball assignment is great for this. Make it in Blue J.