Learning the Netbeans Platform

Question

Im looking to get a book to learn the Netbeans Platform. There is a book on amazon that covers up until version 6.5 and a new version of the same book that covers up until 6.9. There is about 30 price difference between the older version and the newer version. If I got the version that covers up until 6.5, would this be enough to get me started or has a lot changed from 6.5 - 6.9 that it would just be a waste of money?

I know I could look at the change logs to see what has changed, but I dont know what the differences actually mean or actually are to make a intelligent decision.

Any help or input would be appreciated.

Answer 1

Well one thing to consider is that 6.5 was released in November 2008 and 6.9 was released June 2010 which is quite considerable. If it were me, I'd get the newer version because it would be easier to follow and well, its up to date. If money is a problem, buy the older version and use blogs and google to fill in the gaps.

One other idea, if you take a look at the book descriptions you should be able to get a overview of the difference between the two and decide if you're missing out on anything worthwhile.

Answer 2

There is a number of very good on-line tutorials in the Netbeans site , that eliminate the need of using an extra book. Stick to your old book, which covers the Netbeans way of thought to a very large extend and follow the tutorials to find out about the quite few newer details of NB-6.9.1 that are not covered.

Keep in mind there is a version 7 release candidate 1 and there will be a version 8 etc. You do not need to buy books every time the release changes.

Answer 3

I have read both of them and in addition to the changes in the platform they have somewhat different approach. The 6.5 version has better overview of the whole platform and module system while the 6.9 version only tells what to do to accomplish something. I think the only significant change in the platform is the use of annotations to register implementations into the platform. I think the decision which to choose depends mainly about which approach you like. Because of that I myself would buy the 6.5 version and upgrade my knowledge from the excellent NetBeans tutorials.