CSCI 201 -- Introduction to NetBeans

Starting NetBeans in RH004

Linux users have two options. First, they can start up a Linux terminal session and type the command netbeans to start the NetBeans IDE.

We suggest you create a GNOME laucher since you are going to be using NetBeans so much in CSCI 201. Start this process by moving your mouse into a empty area on the right-hand site of the GNOME panel, that's the grey bar at the bottom of the screen. Now right-click to bring up a menu and then go through the menu sequence Add to Panel → Launcher... as shown below.

This will bring up the Create Launcher dialog window.

First change the Name field to something sensible, like NetBeans. To add a launcher you need to know the filename of the application to run. In our case, it's /opt/netbeans-4.0beta1/bin/netbeans. Use the Browse... button of Create Launcher to bring up a Browse dialog. Then navigate to the directory /opt/netbeans-4.0beta1/bin and select the file netbeans.

Then press OK.

You could just press OK now, but then you wouldn't have a nice NetBeans icon at the bottom of your screen. So press the box containing the words No Icon to bring up another Browse dialog to select the icon. This time nagivate to the directory /opt/netbeans-4.0beta1/nb4.0 and choose the netbeans.png file.

Press OK in the Browse window and another OK in the Create Launcher window and you should have a button for starting NetBeans in your panel.

NetBeans -- first sight

Now use your button to start up NetBeans and wait patiently for a screen that looks something like this:

Modifying your program

Go into the panel containing lincoln.java and place the following single Java statement at the beginning of your main method as shown in the screen capture above. We suggest you cut-and-paste.

System.out.println("4*20 + 7 years ago") ;

Building and running your code with icons

Slowly move your mouse across NetBeans' row of icons. Find one labeled Build Main Project (F11) and press it. Be patient. Find the icon on your own.

After you build your project, you'll see a third panel labeled Output at the bottom of NetBeans window. This panel is used to display the result of compiling and running your code.

Now find the icon labeled Run Main Project (F6) and press it. You'll see that your program does very little.

Exporting on Linux

Take a quick look at all the files that compose a NetBeans project by pressing on the Files tab. Now press on those little turnstiles on the left side of the Files panel to expand the directories. There's almost twenty files in this project for a Java program that prints a single line.

How do you get all these files into a single archive? Creating an archive ZIP file on Linux requires the use of a command line utility, so return to your command line processor (possibly for the last time in a CSCI 201 lab).

Remember that your project folder is underneath your csci/201 directory. So you must first connect there. Then type the command ls -R lincoln. You should see many files.

[yourid@yourmach currentdir] cd ~/csci/201
[yourid@yourmach 201] ls -R lincoln

There are a few files of interest here. For you the more important is lincoln/src/lincoln.java which contains your Java code. If you were submitting this file for an assignment, you'd submit the file lincoln.java contained within your csci/201/lincoln/src directory.

Let's get back to the task of creating a ZIP file containing your NetBeans project. That's easy. It can be done with one command:

[yourid@yourmach 201] zip -r lincoln.zip lincoln

This command will place your entire project into a single file lincoln.zip which can be transfered to almost any another computer.

[yourid@yourmach currentdir] unzip -l ~/csci/201/lincoln.zip

Unrolling a project

The starter project for your next task is archived in fixit.zip. Press the link to start the download.

Soon you should see a window entitled Opening fixit.zip. If its asks you if you wish to use file-roller, agree. However, it will probably inform you that it "does not know how to handle this file type." You must correct this problem. Tell Mozilla that it is supposed to use the program /usr/bin/file-roller to open ZIP files!

After you press OK, the file-roller starts with a simple window that shows you that the ZIP archive contains a single folder called fixit. All CSCI 201 archives will contain only one folder.

You need to press the Extract icon to bring up the Extract window. Then you have to press Browse... to bring up the Extract to window. Within the Extract to window you'll have to navigate to your csci/201 directory before your press the OK button.

When you return to the Extract window, it is very important that you check the box Recreate folders before proceeding. Also, verify that you have your csci/201 directory selected as the Destination folder.

Finding and correcting errors with NetBeans

If you look at the window containing fixit.java, you'll see two little red boxes containing cross marks. Each of these boxes mark a Java programming error. If you place your mouse on a box, you'll be rewarded with a message displaying the cause of the error.

For example, the first error occurs because this Java statement does not end with an semicolon.

The second error occurs because there is a missing right curly brace.
Go ahead and fix these two syntatic errors.

Yes, as soon as you fix those two errors a third one shows up. This is a semantic error. System is misspelled.

Correct this error and the boxes go away.