JBuilder

Infobox_Software
name = JBuilder


caption = JBuilder 2005 Screenshot
developer = CodeGear
latest_release_version = 2007 r2
latest_release_date = May 7 2007
operating_system = Cross-platform
genre = Integrated Development Environment
website = http://www.codegear.com/Products/JBuilder

JBuilder is a Java IDE from Borland/CodeGear. Codegear was recently purchased by Embarcadero Technologies.

Borland/CodeGear sells a variety of versions of JBuilder, and offers a free limited version for beginners of the Java language.

JBuilder's main competitors are the products from Eclipse Foundation (Eclipse), JetBrains (IntelliJ IDEA), BEA Systems, Sun Microsystems (NetBeans) and Oracle (JDeveloper). Oracle used to base the first versions of JDeveloper on code from JBuilder licensed from Borland, but it has since been rewritten from scratch.

History

JBuilder was conceived within Borland in late 1995, by the people fascinated with the new language
Java including David Williams, Carl Quinn and Jayson Minard working in Borland's Component Product Group and the C++ Group. Carl Quinn later created the Baja component model which became the basis of the JavaBeans specification. Jayson Minard created the Java prototype which was the foundation for the JBuilder IDE, and the DataSet model for database access. Other people later joining the team were Joe Nuxoll and Blake Stone who led the development of the first all-Java version of the product, with Blake Stone eventually to become JBuilder's chief scientist after Jayson Minard vacated the role.

The first version of JBuilder was mostly written in Delphi other than the form designer and component library. Version 3.5 was the first written fully in Java, and this platform, revolutionary for those days, 1997, permitted users to add "add-ons", a.k.a. OpenTools, and so customize the IDE for their purposes. As a result, Oracle was able to build their initial JDeveloper based on JBuilder (in 2001 JDeveloper was rewritten, today it does not contain any code from the JBuilder product). A community formed around the new product, adding more and more new plugins. One of such plugins, the Together plugin for JBuilder finally evolved into a separate, standalone product - but the company, TogetherSoft, was eventually acquired by Borland.

JBuilder 3 had a reputation for being slow and unstable. By version 3.5 Tony de la Lama took control over the production process - and since then, until his departure in 2003 to take control of the TogetherSoft acquisition, Borland produced a version of JBuilder every 6 months, with quality ever improving and features being added. Tony de la Lama declared war on competing products, in his campaign, targeting Visual Café, then WebGain. Borland won these wars with JBuilder.

One of the lines of intensive development was J2EE. JBuilder is now able to work with multiple application servers, and can be used for developing web services and JSPs. Another line, where developers initiative did not always find understanding in the management, is Extreme Programming. Another feature is integration with Borland's profiler, Optimizeit.

In 2004, Blake Stone left Borland and joined Microsoft [http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1485307,00.asp] to become the architect for the Microsoft Visual Studio Core Team. [http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718715.aspx] Tony de la Lama left Borland and joined BEA Systems as vice president on January 2005. [http://www.hostreview.com/news/press/050124BEA.html]

Lately, Eclipse, an open source platform/IDE that is modular and highly extensible, has been taking over. Borland was one of the founding members of the Eclipse Foundation. In February 2005, Borland significantly increased its support of the Eclipse platform and joined its board of directors as a strategic developer. [http://www.internetnews.com/dev-news/article.php/3486021]

In November 2006, Borland announced that their Developer Tools Group would become a wholly-owned subsidiary CodeGear, focused on maximizing developer productivity. As a result, this new company is now the owner of JBuilder.

At the end of 2006, CodeGear officially released JBuilder2007, which according to CodeGear is the first application server independent enterprise class IDE built on the open source Eclipse project. This was a complete redesign of the JBuilder codebase. Similar to IBM's Rational Software Architect built on top of Eclipse with a lot (14 CDs [http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/03/28/13TCjava_2.html] ) of IBM content, Borland has added value at a higher level by creating Eclipse plug-in modules for code quality assurance, CPU profiling and debugging, modeling, visualization, team collaboration, etc.

Trial downloads of their enterprise software are available on the CodeGear website, which revert to the "free" foundation version when the 30 day trial period expires. A "Turbo" version is also available but no details have been released yet regarding the features.

JBuilder Versions

*JBuilder 1. Available in 1997. It came in Client/Server, Professional, and Standard editions.
*JBuilder 2. Available in 1998. It came in Client/Server, Professional, and Standard editions.
*JBuilder 3. Available in 1999.
*JBuilder 4. Available in 2000.
*JBuilder 5. Available in 2001.
*JBuilder 6. Available in 2001.
*JBuilder 7. Available in 2002. It came in Enterprise, Standard (SE), and Personal editions. Updates (code patches) went up to at least Update 3.
*JBuilder 8. Available in 2002. It came in Enterprise, Standard (SE), and Personal editions. Updates went up to at least the first one, "JBuilder 8 Update".
*JBuilder 9. Available in 2003. It came in Enterprise, Standard (SE), and Personal editions. Updates went up to at least Update 2.
*JBuilder X. Available in 2003. It came in Enterprise, Developer, and Foundation editions. Updates went up to at least Update 3.
*JBuilder 2005. Available in 2004. It came in Enterprise, Developer, and Foundation editions. Updates went up to at least Update 4.
*JBuilder 2006. Available in 2005. It came in Enterprise, Developer, and Foundation editions.
*JBuilder 2007. Available in 2006. This is the first JBuilder version redone to work on top of Eclipse [http://www.borland.com/us/company/news/press_releases/2006/11_20_06_jbuilder_accelerates_collaborative_development.html. ] Its user interface and features are much different than previous versions of JBuilder.
*JBuilder 2007 r2 Available in 2007 [ [http://www.codegear.com/article/36375 CodeGear™ Announces New Developer-focused Release of Award-winning JBuilder® 2007 Integrated Development Environment ] ] . It came in Enterprise, Standard (SE), and Turbo editions.
*JBuilder 2008 . It came in Enterprise, Professional and Turbo editions.

References

ee also

*Comparison of integrated development environments

External links

* [http://www.codegear.com/Products/JBuilder CodeGear's JBuilder site]
* [http://www.drbob42.com/JBuilder/index.htm History of some JBuilder versions.]