Java IDE in a brand new avatar. Making development server centric.
The Java IDE market space is one of the most competitive segments of the Java marketplace. IDEs have evolved and changed very rapidly to suit the growing complexity of Java J2EE as well as the needs of the Java developer.
NCStudio is a refreshing new IDE offfering that claims to provide features that no other IDE has today. In this interview, we speak to Mukesh Hegde, VP Sales & Marketing for NCE Technologies. Mukesh tell us what makes NCStudio special and why Java developers should consider adopting NCStudio instead of the already established IDEs.
IndicThreads >> Hi Mukesh. Welcome to IndicThreads. Could you introduce yourself to IndicThreads members?
NCE Technologies is a product company developing productivity tools for software developers and end-users. Our development team is located in Iselin, NJ, USA and Bangalore, India. We focus on developing products on server centric computing principles. NCStudio ILDE is one such product. It is a development tool for Java application development.
I am responsible for Sales & Marketing at NCE Technologies Inc. I have a B.Tech. from IIT Bombay and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.
IndicThreads >> Great. Tell us a little more about NCStudio ILDE. I noticed that you call it an Integrated Lifecycle Development Environment (ILDE) instead of just an IDE. Why so?
NCStudio ILDE is much much more than just an IDE. It provides comprehensive support for the entire software development lifecycle. It provides a platform to develop all phases ? define, design, development, testing and deployment, including database development – for a Java application in one integrated studio. It provides functionality to develop all kinds of Java applications ? J2EE, J2ME, Swing applications, etc. It supports Struts design patterns and Web Services.
“NCStudio ILDE is much much more than just an IDE. It provides comprehensive support for the entire software development lifecycle.“
Users can start with requirements gathering, generate use cases, class diagrams, sequence diagrams and then move on to writing code. The user can write and debug any Java application. Wizards and frameworks for generating EJBs and excellent refactoring features free up the developer from writing code allowing him/her to focus on applying the business logic.
The DB Manager can be used to access the DB, and create and manipulate the DB tables from within the development environment. The user can write and execute Stored Procedures, run triggers on the database and use the wizards for generating EJBs/JSPs for a particular table.
Easy deployment to different application servers is possible from within the tool. NCStudio ILDE includes source configuration management features obviating the need for any version control tool.
And we will be adding more features to NCStudio ILDE. The issue tracking feature will enable reporting, assigning and tracking bugs. The Project Management feature will allow the user to create tasks/subtasks, set start dates/end dates, create Gantt charts, assign tasks/subtasks, and manage timesheets from within the tool.
For the detailed feature list, please visit http://www.ncstudio.com/features.jsp.
IndicThreads >> How would you compare NCStudio ILDE to other IDE offerings like WSAD, JDeveloper, etc.?
The current offerings in the market are either supplementary add-ons or do not support the entire SDLC. Only few Java IDEs currently available in market support the entire software development lifecycle and are quite expensive. No IDE has NCStudio ILDE?s server centric architecture.
“No IDE has NCStudio ILDE?s server centric architecture.“
NCStudio ILDE provides a comprehensive and rich feature set. For e.g. Model driven architecture and round trip engineering is supported. The user can dynamically generate the code from the class diagrams and reverse engineer the class diagram from the code. Design of Struts applications is simple with the Struts design feature. DB management features allow the user to access, create and manipulate tables, and generate EJBs/JSPs for the table.
In a nutshell, NCStudio ILDE is comprehensive and integrated in a seamless manner permitting easy user movement across the development phases. The server centric architecture enables dynamic collaboration between distributed teams, making it relevant for onsite-offshore development that is widely prevalent.
IndicThreads >> You said that NCStudio ILDE is a server centric development environment. That’s interesting. So often developers have to waste time getting the development environment in place and then there’s always the “It runs on my machine” argument that comes up when something goes wrong. How does NCStudio ILDE help here and what actually runs on the server and what on the client?
Exactly. Communication issues often arise between distributed teams because of different configurations and setups. NCStudio ILDE addresses this problem because all teams access, work and execute the application with the same system configuration.
“90% of the functionality is on the server.
The files are saved, compiled and run on the server. “
90% of the functionality is on the server. The files are saved, compiled and run on the server. The application server and database reside on the server. EJBs are deployed and database querying and manipulation happens on the server. The client is a simple editor and only editing and refactoring happens on the client.
When the user logins in for the first time and launches NCStudio ILDE from his/her client machine, the necessary client jars get downloaded to the client and are saved in the cache. The next time the user logs in the client checks for any updates and downloads only the updates to the client.
Users can evaluate NCStudio ILDE online at www.ncstudio.com and experience the tool for themselves. Clicking on the ?Evaluate NCStudio online? link launches the application and users can start working right away.
IndicThreads >> Is NCStudio ILDE based on any underlying framework and can I build custom plugins for NCStudio ILDE?
Yes, you can develop plugins for NCStudio ILDE. We are working on a plugin architecture for NCStudio ILDE and this will be in place by end of December. We welcome and encourage developers to contribute ideas and develop plugins. We have an attractive plugin development policy for plugin developers. In fact, going forward, you will see a lot of momentum for NCStudio ILDE plugin development.
IndicThreads >> Development for which J2EE version and components does NCStudio ILDE support?
Currently NCStudio ILDE supports JDK1.4.2 and provides full support for JSP/Servlets, EJBs, and JDBC. The next release of NCStudio ILDE will support JDK 1.5.
IndicThreads >> What has the response from the community and clients been like? Do you offer a free / trial version that the community can try out?
The response has been great. The community is excited about the prospect of developing applications remotely on the server and the ASP model that this holds forth. The evaluation version is available for download from our website.
“The response has been great. The community is excited about the prospect of developing applications remotely on the server and the ASP model that this holds forth.“
IndicThreads >> Overall, what do you think is the future of Java and J2EE development? Any new technologies that you are eyeing with particular interest?
We believe that Swing will take off in a major way and there will be a lot of activity related to JDO and JSF. SOA is another interesting area to watch out for. As organizations want disparate applications to talk to each other, SOA will gain prominence.
“As organizations want disparate applications to talk to each other, SOA will gain prominence.”
IndicThreads >> What about the Java scene in India? Any India specific observations?
Over the last year Java technology usage has been growing and people have begun to realize that Java has lot of stuff that .Net cannot provide for. Java has established itself strongly in the enterprise application space. In fact demand for Java developers is greater than .Net and C/C++ developers put together. This is a reflection of Java’s inherent strength.
“In fact demand for Java developers is greater than .Net and C/C++ developers put together. This is a reflection of Java?s inherent strength.“
IndicThreads >> Anything else you would want to share with IndicThreads visitors?
We are targeting NCStudio ILDE to be the “Best product in Customer Satisfaction”. We will appreciate active support and feedback from IndicThreads readers.
“We are targeting NCStudio ILDE to
be the “Best product in Customer Satisfaction”.“
IndicThreads >> Thanks Mukesh.
can some body give difference between toplink, hibernate and jdo?
Best of Luck.
Wishing you all the best in your new venture. God bless you.
The Java IDE has officially been open-sourced. It makes no sense to start over. The existing commercial vendors – Borland, JetBrains, etc. will eventually losing their market to this paradigm, and you have no chance of getting in on it. There is nothing that a completely new IDE can do that Eclipse could not if you just wrote the plug-in for it.
itz a nice site 4 da student 2 xplore 🙂
Good that you are passionate about Eclipse/Netbeans. But you seem to be overlooking the possibility that there could be something better than both of them. This product is very fast inspite of being server-based. It is also very comprehensive. There are some areas like the editor where the product needs more features. I hope these get addressed soon. Keep up the good work guys.
Forgive me for making a comment on a comment, but what difference does it make if the company is from India or not? You know, being American (white at that), I would be slammed, most likely fired and probably shot at if I made a comment like ‘Hey, an American company that is doing this..’. It’s so sad to see people in this world still resort to racial comments. Forgive me for making a bold statement, but being an American developer, I am rather sour towards the mass move of engineers being hired up in India. Mind you, I work with a number of Indian developers and they are great, so I have no ill feeling towards any nationality, and would surely not make a statement claiming as you have. It is offensive to me, not because I am ‘offended’ per se, but because I thought at least in some segments of the community we were beyond this crap. It’s sad to see so many American companies outsourcing all for the sake of money, and no loyalty whatsoever to the market that America created in the first place, to developers that frankly are underpaid in India. Ya’ll need to realize that the majority of you are being taken advantage of as cheap labor. Maybe it’s great right now, but give it a few years and the same thing will happen. Ya’ll will start getting more money, then eventually, Russia or China will be taking your jobs too and you’ll feel the same pain we are.
So, let’s try to get beyond these ridiculous racial comments, and congradulate the company because of its product, not because it’s origination is from India. I work with VERY talented Indian developers and my hats off to all of them that have better educations than we do here, and work hard too! But I look at them as my equals (and in some cases, superiors given their education), not as from another country.
Being Swing based I can tell that like Netbeans it’s gonna be awfully slow. As one commenter pointed out, instead of a new IDE we are in better need of good plugins. The state of acceptance at which Eclipse/Netbeans are presently in, it’s fairly stupid to reinvent the wheel and make (and trying to sell)another IDE, those who aren’t using these 2 excellent and ‘free’ IDEs are probably using Editplus or Notepad anyway.
I am sorry to tell you but this is just nuts. You can’t compete with Eclipse or Netbeans. You are better of writing a meaningful plugin for Eclipse or Netbeans than coming up with new IDE.
Best of Luck Mukesh!
Looking forward to play with the eval version over the long weekends.
BTW, is there any support for developing Rich-Client user interfaces?
Finally, an Indian company that is dreaming beyond the narrow confines of BPO/IT services and attempting to extend the envelope of a critical aspect of software development!
Best of luck to Mukesh and co!