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FedoraPackagingNBWishList

Fedora - Packaging of the NetBeans - Wish List

Contents


Overview

It is the Wish List for the NetBeans feature of the Fedora.

Please, feel free to expand this list according to both your needs and the Fedora Packaging Guidelines.

Wish List

Open with NetBeans IDE

Issue

I see a Java source file in the File Browser, but I need do a lot of extra actions to open it in the NetBeans IDE.

Wish

It will be better to see the Open with "NetBeans IDE" menu item in the context menu of the File Browser for all files with MIME types that are supported by the plugins installed into NetBeans IDE. Association of the NetBeans IDE with MIME types should be dynamically updated immediately after installation/uninstalation of a plugin. It should not depend on a way how a plugin has been installed, i.e via rpm or via NetBeans Update Center.

Selecting NetBeans during installation of Fedora

Issue

Check it before try to fix it :-) This record is only to track a possible solution if there is this problem.

Wish

I'd like to see the NetBeans IDE as an optional package during installation of Fedora.

Solution

See description of CompsXml.

See also:

  • e-mail thread How important is comps.xml to us these days?
  • e-mail thread New Comps Groups

Running tests during building of packages

Issue

Some inaccurate changes of spec files may affect behavior of both the NetBeans platform and the NetBeans IDE.

Wish

It will be better to run automated tests immediately after building of packages on the target Fedora platform, including system tests, integration tests, and, also may be, some unit tests, to be sure that all changes are OK.

C/C++ support

Issue

The Small IDE Configuration of the NetBeans IDE is used for Fedora. It does not include the C/C++ support. But, Fedora as a Linux OS has high cohesion with the C language.

Wish

It will be better to see the C/C++ support provided by the NetBeans IDE on the Fedora platform.

A Possible Solution

The C/C++ support is not included as a feature of the Base IDE. Nevertheless, it is possible to distribute the C/C++ plugin as a separate RPM that extends functionality of the Base IDE on the Fedora platform.

Such solution can be used in place of the traditional downloading of the C/C++ plugin via the NetBeans Update Center that makes it accessible only for a user who initiates this process.

swing-layout

Issue

The netbeans-platform8.spec defines dependency on the swing-layout package, version >= 1.0 (project swing-layout.dev.java.net). But, the page What is the Swing Layout Extensions library (swing-layout) and why do I need it? claims that it is redundant dependency if Java 6 (e.g. OpenJDK) is installed.

Wish

Remove redundant dependency on the swing-layout-1.0.3.jar (possible on the Swing Layout Extensions library).

Windows launcher

Issue

NetBeans distro for the Fedora, version 10 doesn't provide Windows launcher, because the version doesn't provide a Windows cross compiler.

Wish

Will be better to see both nb.exe and netbeans.exe in the NetBeans distro.

Solution

Use MinGW (see Windows cross compiler - Targeted release: Fedora 11) to compile the Windows launcher sources.

Realized Wishes

jakarta-commons-logging

Issue

The netbeans.spec uses commons-logging.jar, but not establishes dependency on its package.

Wish

Both build-time and run-time dependencies on the jakarta-commons-logging package should be established in the netbeans.spec explicitly.

Solution

  • Add the following at the top of the spec file: 
BuildRequires: jakarta-commons-logging >= 1.0.4
  • Add the following in the %package %{nb_ide} section of the spec file: 
Requires: jakarta-commons-logging >= 1.0.4
  • Changelog record is: 
- Explicit dependencies on the jakarta-commons-logging package are added.

Realized in the Release 10 (netbeans-6.1-10.fc10.src.rpm)

Use of original uncompressed JAR files

Issue

The brp-java-repack-jars script is called by the rpmbuild at the end of building all RPMs containing JAR files. The script compress all JAR files even if original ones was not compressed. It is possible that we can improve overall performance of the NetBeans IDE on the Fedora platform if we will use original (i.e. uncompressed) JAR files instead.

Wish

Disable the call of the brp-java-repack-jars script. It can speed up loading of classes and resources from JAR files. Of course, actual benefits should be additionally investigated before doing that.

Solution

  • Add the following macro at the top of the spec file: 
# Prevent brp-java-repack-jars from being run.
%define __jar_repack %{nil}
  • Changelog record is: 
- Call of the brp-java-repack-jars script is disabled
{{{1}}}

Realized in the Release 10 (netbeans-6.1-10.fc10.src.rpm)

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