I finally decided to climb into the Netbeans platform (been meaning to do it for ages). I figured there are only really 3 things I want Netbeans to do that it can’t already do:
- Play Music while I code
- Check; Read and Write Email
- Browse the web (properly, not just HTML 3.2)
Since playing music turned out to be the most important for me, I decided that I’d write a music player as my first Netbeans module. I’m basing the entire module heavily on Amarok, since thats by far the best music player I’ve used (and I’ve used plenty). Currently the code has a Collection (of all your music), and a Playlist. It also adds a new menu, titled “Multimedia”.
Heres a screen-shot of the app so far:
The Netbeans Platform (once you get your head around a few simple concepts) is a dream to work with. If you haven’t already used it, try coding something simple on it, you’ll almost certainly love it!
Update (18:15):
It’s already at a point that it’s quite usable, I’ll find somewhere to open-source the module in the next day or so, and post a link to it on my blog. It’s now happily playing a Nightwish MP3 in the background for me. It makes life a whole lot easier when you don’t have to leave your IDE to do something like queue a song.
