Hi Blake. I thought I might just take the time to sing the praises of Netbeans.
You seem to be a very intelligent man, who, as I do, loves to be creative with software. Like you, I'm a bit of a woulda if I coulda type; I would develop stuff for Netbeans if I had the time. The thing I've found so far about Netbeans is that it is sufficient for my purposes, and doesn't try to cajole me into appropriating anything fancy, unlike, say, IntelliJ which I have found likes to usher me into a K-hole. :) When it comes to AI, sometimes I just ask ChatGPT to generate some code for me... wonderful stuff indeed! 看！我甚至會說中文！... wow! I might actually learn it for real some day too. I think you and I are two of many people who have a similar relationship with Netbeans; I have a very high regard for those who make a contribution and hence keep Netbeans sufficient for my purposes. Indeed, I hope my anonymous usage stats (if indeed I send any - I would have elected to if there is an option for this when I installed it) are helpful, and I hope some of the prattle I publish on this mail list is received well by others. The best thing to happen in Java recently is flexible constructors, but generally, Java has catered for my vicissitudes as my projects have grown in complexity for about 20 years. Although I have been diverted for one reason or another, Netbeans has been a reliable stalwart to which I have returned time and again. Thanks again Netbeans for being sufficient and for not overburdening me with expectation. I recon, among those gifted enough to give time they may have to contribute to Netbeans's sufficiency, that there are many more people among you who feel the same as me. Owen. On Sun, 18 Jan 2026 at 15:20, Blake McBride <[email protected]> wrote: > Greetings, > > I thought that sharing my experience with Claude Code might be useful, as > it has dramatically increased my ability to repair bugs and implement > features, and I believe it could do the same for NetBeans. > > I single-handedly maintain two primary systems. The first is Stack360 > <https://stack360.io>, a large web-based system. The backend consists of > roughly 9,000 Java and Groovy classes. The frontend is HTML and JavaScript > and includes about 300 screens. The frontend and backend communicate over > REST. The backend uses PostgreSQL with nearly 300 tables, and there are > seven distinct frontends communicating with a single backend. > > The second system is my KISS web development framework, described at > KissWeb.org. It is open source, so anyone can examine it in as much > detail as they like. > > I began using Claude Code to help support, debug, and enhance these > systems about six months ago. Early on, I invested significant time > teaching Claude Code about my systems, architecture, and coding standards. > > Computers understand many languages, and to communicate with them you must > learn one or more of those languages—Java, HTML, JavaScript, C, C#, Python, > and so on. There is a different “language” used to work effectively with > AI, and that language is English. Teaching Claude Code about my systems > and standards is done entirely in plain English using plain text files. > > Before using Claude Code, I spent nearly all of my time supporting, > debugging, and enhancing these systems. I worked seven days a week, roughly > twelve hours a day. My only other concern was spending enough time with my > wife to keep my marriage on track. > > Since training Claude Code on my systems, it now handles roughly 95% of my > workload. Tasks that once took hours now take minutes. Does it make > mistakes? Absolutely! But so has every employee I have ever worked with. > When an employee makes a mistake, you must be careful how you present the > issue—people get offended easily. Claude Code is always available and never > gets an attitude. > > I pay $100 per month for Claude Code and have never hit a usage limit. I > have defined several agents, each with expertise in a specific area. Claude > Code uses these agents in parallel, with them communicating and > collaborating to solve problems. > > Now to how this relates to NetBeans—I apologize in advance for being blunt. > > NetBeans was once my favorite IDE by far. It had the most intuitive > interface I had ever used. Around the time NetBeans stopped functioning > properly during the Apache transition, I switched to IntelliJ out of > necessity. While IntelliJ is far better than IDEs like Eclipse, NetBeans > was still the best, in my opinion. > > Unfortunately, NetBeans has remained unusable for serious work since the > rework that was done as part of that transition. I would like to help, but > I simply do not have the time. For me, that is not an option. > > For my purposes, the current version of NetBeans is far too restrictive > and buggy for real-world use. That is a shame, because I genuinely like > NetBeans. For a long time I assumed things would improve. Many years have > passed, and in many areas the situation has worsened. > > I understand that progress depends on contributions. At present, there are > not enough effective contributions to drive NetBeans forward in a > meaningful way. Left as things are, I doubt NetBeans will ever regain > anything close to its former level of use. > > This is where Claude Code becomes relevant. Tools like Claude Code can > dramatically increase the amount of progress each contributor can deliver. > Making a serious effort to integrate AI-assisted development into the > NetBeans workflow could significantly accelerate development. I believe > that a substantially more capable and useful version of NetBeans could be > produced in a relatively short time. > > Like it or not, AI systems such as Claude Code are already replacing large > portions of what we do. This is happening regardless of personal > preference. My advice is simple: take maximum advantage of it while you can. > > Thanks, > Blake McBride >
