Apache NetBeans release 12.2 offers, among others, (improved) support for Java 14 and 15. NetBeans features such as code coloring, code formatting, and auto-completion now support new Java language features like records and keywords such as sealed, non-sealed, and permits.
Java 15 introduced sealed classes as a preview feature. Sealed classes introduce three new Java keywords: sealed, non-sealed, and permits. NetBeans 12.2 offers code coloring, code formatting, and auto-completion for those new features.
Java 14 and 15 introduced records as a preview feature. NetBeans 12.2 offers improved support, such as better code completion for records. Besides that, some formatting and refactoring issues with records were resolved.
There's also improved support for some older Java features. In this new release, types are shown for chained method invocations. For example, with streams, the editor shows the resulting type for the various map and flatMap operations. Next to that, copy-pasting raw text in the NetBeans editor now results in the automatic creation of a Class, Interface, or Enum.
Apache NetBeans releases four versions a year: one long term support (LTS) version around May/June which is thoroughly tested and supported for a year, next to that, three quarterly releases with new features are released. Those new features will be tested and supported by the next LTS release. Apache NetBeans 12 is the latest LTS version, 12.2 is a non-LTS version.
This release also offers increased support for Gradle. Among the changes are automatically detected Gradle wrapper distribution and improved Lombok support.
Various libraries such as Spring, Gradle, and TestNG have been updated to their latest versions as well.
It's possible to use the compiler of your preferred JDK builds in NetBeans. However, NetBeans also supports nb-javac, a patched version of javac. The nb-javac compiler offers a number of improvements for NetBeans which aren't available through the other compilers. The new nb-javac compiler supports JDK 15 and can be used with NetBeans 12.2.
Apache NetBeans 12.2 now runs on Apple's Big Sur thanks to some bugfixes. Depending on the underlying Java build it also runs on the new Apple chips. The NetBeans team mentioned on Twitter that 12.2 was tested successfully with Zulu's OpenJDK on Apple's new processor:
Time to get @TheASF @NetBeans up and running out of the box with Big Sur and Apple Silicon. But how to get #Java to work there? Well, @AzulSystems Zulu @OpenJDK works out of the box on Mac OSX Big Sur on #AppleSilicon together with the soon-to-be-released NetBeans 12.2!
This version of Apache NetBeans also offers support for PHP 8.0, although this release is not yet feature-complete as mentioned by Jun-ichi Yamamoto on Twitter:
Some people may expect full PHP 8.0 support in NetBeans 12.2. But I have not finished implementing some syntaxes yet, sorry... Maybe, they would be added in 12.3. PHP 8.0 has many new features. So, it takes a lot of time... Thanks for your understanding.
Animations for the various NetBeans 12.2 changes are available in the release notes. The notes contain a complete list of all the improvements which also contain changes for technologies like JavaFX and Java Web.
