Blogs:JaroslavTulach:Theory:RightDependencies

From APIDesign

I've just seen following quote in my mailbox: 'perhaps NetBeans is easiest to build plugin for...' (read: easier than other IDEs).

Well, the mileage may vary. However if you want (or even have people with knowledge of) 'standard' modularity and standard UI toolkit, then NetBeans Platform 6.9 is the easiest way to merge these two. We support Swing for ages and dedicated last nine months to interoperability with OSGi. Some even say it is easier to use Equinox with NetBeans IDE 6.9 than with Eclipse IDE.

I'll continue to investigate various interoperability options as part of my daily job. At the end it should not matter whether you code for Eclipse or NetBeans, but whether you have the right dependencies (read: no SWT, bunch of Swing and don't forget Lookup ;-). This is another sign that (when there is a common ground - a lingua franca - e.g. common module system for Java) interoperability will be easier than ever. Building applications will be like composing them from Lego bricks. There is only one prerequisite:

Choose your dependencies wisely!