The Explosion of Development Frameworks

It has been a frustrating week. I switched from Eclipse to NetBeans a month or so ago. On the surface NetBeans has it all - Java, J2ME, Python, JavaScript, HTML, XML. I have been using it for JavaScript Development and it has been great. While working on the mobile software it has been good. Now I need to work server side. The Python support is great also, but I can't get it to work with Google Appengine.

Appengine (the part I use) is Python. I can load it in as a project and run and debug it. The auto-complete in my own files works well - including appengine classes. The problem is on save. Any class that inherits from an appengine one gets displayed as an error. Further parsing is disabled.

I would like a single IDE if it is possible. So, back to Eclipse. I have always had difficulties with J2ME emulators under Eclipse. Every upgrade breaks something. The latest was no exception. To cut a long story short I compile for the Motorola J2ME system then run the resulting debug code on Microemulator.

This dance has taken the last 3 days. And now I can start work again...

Javascript Libraries

When I started Golf Adept I dropped my own Javascript framework in favour of ExtJS. I felt it was the most advanced at the time. ExtJS has just been released and they want more money from me. I believe in paying for service, but while in sabbatical budgeting mode I need to be careful. I was not impressed with the service. Every question is answered with a short RTC (read the code) response. It is a good library, but I would like one that I can access with the Google Ajax loader. I have narrowed down my tests if YUI (Yahoo), JQuery and Dojo. I like JQuery, but it is missing some important elements - such as grids and trees. I managed to break the demo code for Dojo - and that is a worry. YUI is ... complex. I will continue to consider and publish my analysis.