Adding Javadoc to Netbeans 6.1

[zerg]

Any Netbeans experts know how to configure it to find the Javadocs?

For whatever reason, my system has the Javadocs in C:\Program
Files\Java\1.6.0 and everything else in C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0_10.
Netbeans autoconfigured on install with the src.zip and class jars under
the latter directory, and left the Javadoc field blank.

I can't get it to work. I've tried:

C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\
C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\docs\
C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\docs\api\ (which would apparently have
worked in Netbeans 4.x, according to my Google search's results)
C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\docs\api\index-files\
C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\docs\api\jdk\

and one or two others.

The docs are definitely located there; file://C/Program
Files/Java/1.6.0/docs/api/ browses them in Firefox. I'd move the docs
folder over to 1.6.0_10 and reinstall Netbeans, except that that would
break browser bookmarks and other links.

Which specific directory does it actually want?

I could guess for hours and not hit it. Particularly with the somewhat
clunky UI in that part of Netbeans (it doesn't remember the last-used
directory for very long, forgetting it whenever you actually leave the
Platform Setup dialog to test whether it now sees the Javadocs; and you
can't jump to a directory by pasting and hitting Enter without it
treating that as the directory to use instead of letting you browse from
there -- the quickest method I've found to try another one is to paste
in the 1.6.0 directory's path and hit enter, which adds it; then remove
this and the preexisting entry; then click Add again and NOW I'm in the
neighborhood in the file browser).

 

[Mark Space]

Any Netbeans experts know how to configure it to find the Javadocs?

Tools->Java Platforms

On the left, make sure you have the correct platform (Java SE, JDK 1.6,
etc.) selected. On the right, click on the Javadoc tab.

Mine says:

C:\Program files\Java\jdk1.6.0\jdk-6-doc.zip

In other words, it's looking for the .zip file. If you unzip it, I
guess you should point it at the directory the Java doc unzips into.
Probably "...\jdk-6-doc".

You may need to use Explorer to actually find the Java doc first.

 

[zerg]

Any Netbeans experts know how to configure it to find the Javadocs?

For whatever reason, my system has the Javadocs in C:\Program
Files\Java\1.6.0 and everything else in C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0_10.
Netbeans autoconfigured on install with the src.zip and class jars under
the latter directory, and left the Javadoc field blank.

I can't get it to work. I've tried:

C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\
C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\docs\
C:\Program Files\Java\1.6.0\docs\api\ (which would apparently have
worked in Netbeans 4.x, according to my Google search's results)

Fixed. Some more Googling turned up that it only works if there's a
project open. The error message is misleading, not to mention it doesn't
distinguish "you don't have a project open" from "the directory is not
set correctly".

That's two usability issues in one small area of Netbeans.

Maybe I should have picked that other one, what was it called, eclipse?

Well, we'll see. I have disk space to burn.

Meanwhile, I notice NetBeans trying to phone home as indicated by my
firewall. Haven't been letting it, so far. Are there any known issues
(privacy, for instance) related to enabling it to use the internet? I
wouldn't necessarily want someone in effect looking over my shoulder
while I code, depending on what I'm doing at the time and how
proprietary it is.

I also have things on my computer I might not like certain agencies
whose acronyms end with "AA" knowing about.

 

[Lew]

Meanwhile, I notice NetBeans trying to phone home as indicated by my
firewall. Haven't been letting it, so far. Are there any known issues
(privacy, for instance) related to enabling it to use the internet? I

No privacy issues with NetBeans. It's just looking for updates.

wouldn't necessarily want someone in effect looking over my shoulder
while I code, depending on what I'm doing at the time and how
proprietary it is.

Oh, yeah, like NB is going to lift your precious code snippets. Uh-
huh.

I also have things on my computer I might not like certain agencies
whose acronyms end with "AA" knowing about.

Your best protection would be to start going to those A.A. meetings on
a regular basis.

NetBeans has a collaboration module that lets you share code and IDE
sessions over a third-party server. This looks incredibly useful, if
I can ever find a second programmer who wants to use it.

Not all traffic on the 'net is designed to hurt you.

 

[John B. Matthews]

Meanwhile, I notice NetBeans trying to phone home as indicated by
my firewall.

[...]
No privacy issues with NetBeans. It's just looking for updates.

Zerg: Lew is correct. In addition, an included package can trigger an
unexpected search for updates. I've seen this happen when someone
inadvertently checked-in a version of DebugGraphics that Matisse found
wanting.

 

[zerg]

That is simply not true.

It is true; I witnessed this myself firsthand, as well as seeing it
described elsewhere, found via Google.

The location of Java's javadocs is set
independently of any project being open.

That much IS true. But if a project isn't currently open, Netbeans won't
actually see the javadocs if you try to access them, and it will give
the same error message as if the platform javadocs actually aren't yet
set up.

 

[zerg]

Not all traffic on the 'net is designed to hurt you.

Not all is designed to help, either, as many people have become all to
aware. Particularly since a certain embarrassment that befell Sony (as a
consequence of their own misbehavior) a couple of years ago.

On a side note, in your two posts in response to mine, but especially in
this second one (the bulk of which I did not feel it necessary to
quote), I detected a distinct tone of hostility, and even derision.
(Then again, in the first one you more or less accused me of lying.)

I have never met you before, nor you me, and nothing that I have yet
written in my so-far-short career of posting here seems like it ought to
have been taken personally by you, so I am quite mystified by this.

Unless you were the chief architect of the Netbeans UI elements that I
criticized, which I doubt. And even if so, I think that those criticisms
were valid and constructive, whereas your responding to them by being
rude to me most certainly was not.

I have a killfile here and I am willing to use it on anyone who spams,
trolls, exhibits unreasoning and unprovoked nastiness, or otherwise
makes my visits to this newsgroup less pleasant than they otherwise
might be.

So far, nobody from this group is in it. However, that can change real
quickly. If you again impugn my honesty or otherwise act other than
friendly or neutral towards me, you can have the honor of being the
first person I plonk here.

Rest assured that I will not have done anything to deserve your scorn. I
have no intention of acting out of malice or irresponsibly here.
Therefore if you again display such an attitude towards me as you just
have, it will again have been undeserved, and therefore your plonking
will be quite the opposite, and richly so. And it will be done exactly
as noisily and in public as whatever you did to provoke it.

Therefore, I ask that you please apologize, and please be more civil and
respectful towards me in the future.

Sincerely,
Zerg

 

[Mark Space]

That is simply not true. The location of Java's javadocs is set
independently of any project being open.

I just checked it myself. Close all projects, restart NetBeans. The
Help->Javadoc Index Search menu item won't actually find anything when
it searches. Open one project, and the behavior changes and the search
will locate various Java doc entries. Sounds bugish to me.

 

[Mark Space]

I have a killfile here and I am willing to use it on anyone who spams,
trolls, exhibits unreasoning and unprovoked nastiness, or otherwise
makes my visits to this newsgroup less pleasant than they otherwise
might be.

And your tone isn't nasty? Sun has a pretty good rep. Your comments
complaining about imaginary data mining were pretty stupid. You got
called on it. Next time, be a bit more sensible and you get less nasty
remarks.

Go ahead an use your kill file, no one will care.

 

[zerg]

And your tone isn't nasty?

On the contrary, my post is extremely polite, although firm.

You, on the other hand, have been even ruder than Lew, and with exactly
as little provocation, namely, none whatsoever.

Indeed, you have stooped to name-calling. Against a complete stranger!

I simply asked whether Netbeans' phone-home behavior is harmless or not.
It's a simple question. Treating it not only as if it were an attack,
but a PERSONAL attack on YOU, is frankly ridiculous. Why have two people
here done so?

If the answer is "it's perfectly safe" that's all you need to say: "it's
perfectly safe".

You can never be too careful these days. That software comes from a
large and generally well-regarded company is no reason to automatically
trust it to behave.

One person reacting with unbridled hostility to the merest implication
that software that phones home might not have the user's best interests
at heart MIGHT have been a fluke.

Two doing so, one of them displaying outright aggression, and in the
absence of any OTHER possible provocation, suggests a pattern of action
specifically designed to discourage people from questioning software
that phones home, and perhaps even to discourage people from using
firewalls that allow them to detect, limit, and monitor such behavior.

If that is indeed the case, then it is a bad sign; it means that the
software industry is getting more overtly aggressive in its attempts to
get people to "shut up and accept whatever we tell you to", particularly
with phone-home behavior, as a prelude to shoving who knows what
nastiness down our throats.

Sun, on the other hand, doesn't seem the type to engage in such
behavior. That's more the sort of tactic we've come to expect from
Microsoft, Adobe, Intuit, and their ilk -- and those are the sorts of
companies that want to use phone-home behavior to do really nasty things
like remote deactivation and suchlike, once they force people to accept it.

One expects those companies to start by getting people to let software
phone home and to be blase about it when they do; going around usenet
making hostile posts like you two when anyone behaves otherwise is a
logical component in such a stratagem. Ganging up, in particular, helps
create the illusion that questioning software's use of the user's
internet connection is socially unacceptable for some reason, and doing
so may in turn make it ACTUALLY socially unacceptable. (In the first
stage, only shills that do Google Groups searches for "phone home" will
post to attack people who question non-internet-client software's right
to use the user's internet connection. In the second stage, people
"native" to newsgroups will start to join in. These recent events imply
that the second stage is already upon us, and some people genuinely
believe that it's socially unacceptable to question software's internet
use, and are consequently getting mad at people who do so.)

Once there's a widespread perception that it's socially unacceptable to
question software internet use (and therefore it actually has BECOME
socially unacceptable, and presumably if it's unacceptable to QUESTION
it it's CERTAINLY unacceptable to actually BLOCK it), the next thing to
do is quietly release software that outright refuses to run if it IS
blocked. Nobody much will complain or question this, among those who
even NOTICE it.

Without an outcry, and with a blase "well, what can you do?" shrug from
most people inconvenienced by this, they can begin to tighten the screws
with remote deactivation, pay per use, and other horrid things like that.

Of course, they're all blowing their feet off with 60mm howitzers in
even attempting this. People will just move to free software (or, at
least, freer software), including, ironically, Sun's stuff, because it's
less expensive, even while continuing to think it's rude to question
software's use of their net connection.

Win the battle, lose the war.

Meanwhile, I implore those of you that have been influenced already to
believe that it's rude for someone to question software internet
behavior to THINK and to realize that no, it is NOT rude, and indeed it
is essential to retaining the software freedoms I believe most of you
believe in that people never stop questioning -- such questioning will
help drive more people to adopt open source earlier than they otherwise
would have.

Discouraging it, no matter WHAT your motives, does everyone a
disservice. Particularly doing so by treating such questioning as a
breach of etiquette, or even taboo, as has recently been observed
occurring here.

P.S. the only stupid question is the one that remains unasked.

 

[RedGrittyBrick]

On the contrary, my post is extremely polite, although firm.

You, on the other hand, have been even ruder than Lew, and with exactly
as little provocation, namely, none whatsoever.
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#not_losing

Indeed, you have stooped to name-calling. Against a complete stranger!

Mark said "Your comments ... were pretty stupid". He didn't say *you*
were. For me, that doesn't count as 'name calling'. YMMV.

[rant omitted]

Bye.

 

[zerg]

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#not_losing

No, I have not screwed up. There is no "community standard" to not ask
questions about how software uses one's internet connection, nor would I
consider it legitimate and adhere to it if there were.

As I've just explained, some troublemaking big businesses may be trying
to MAKE such a "community standard" with ulterior motives, but that is
all the more reason to ask such questions and to generally oppose them.

Mark said

I know exactly what Mark said, and it was rude and uncalled-for. This is
supposed to be a civilized forum for adults to discuss Java programming
and related topics. Personal power politics, partisanship, notions that
certain things are Not To Be Questioned, and anything else that
resembles bishops and cardinals jockeying for position and crying
"heresy!" when anyone questions whether the world is flat or the sun
revolves around it, all have no place in comp.lang.java.programmer.

Please be polite to people, especially to newcomers, unless they have
been clearly and distinctly rude to you first. Please do not call people
(or the questions they ask) "stupid", either outright or by implication.
If you don't like a given question, feel free to ignore it, or to point
people to the FAQ if it's answered there, but if you do respond, be
polite. Remember that you are in public and how you treat people,
particularly new people who can't possibly have a bad history with you,
is on record here thanks to Google.

Really, there's nothing to gain from being hostile and alienating
people, particularly newcomers, and there may be plenty to lose.
Remember, too, that all of you were newcomers once. Which would you have
preferred, all other things being equal -- someone answering a question
in a friendly and polite manner, or someone being brusque or even
downright rude because in THEIR opinion YOUR question was a stupid one?

Remember also that the only genuinely stupid question is the one that
remains unasked.

I have nothing further to say on this issue, except in response to
specific questions or claims, as it is clearly off-topic here.

Any further sufficiently-impolite posts will earn a plonking from
whoever posts them, even if they had not previously said anything to me
before.