NetBeans Workshop for III year Students

Me and Vasusen Patil (IV Year CSE) conducted a 5 hour workshop on NetBeans for III Year students of CS on Sunday - 20-7-08. Sumit Roy (IV Year CSE) provided valuable support.

The workshop was attended by 46 students and got a great response. Here is a brief account of the workshop:
Started at 11 AM.

Introduction:
In the introductory speech overall scenario of the Software industry highlighting the three main players - Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and Google, what technologies do they provide and support. We mainly wanted to convey that there are various technologies available to carry out any task, importance must be given on building the basic concepts. Various questions were answered.

Quick Overview of java:
They had java in the last Semester. So we asked basic questions just to brush up the basics. (20 Chocolates were on offer for correct answers). The session was an interactive one and lived up the atmosphere.

Introduction to NetBeans IDE:
A basic overview of the NetBeans IDE was given. All students practically were asked to work around the IDE on their respective PC. The Major components like Projects, Files tab and all menus available were explained in brief.

Display of features using console based application:
A simple console based java application was taught. Following NetBeans features were highlighted:
1. Syntax highlighting.
2. Code folding.
3. Intelliscense(Automatic code completionusing ctrl+space)
4. Short Keys.
5. Debugging faciilities.
6. Exception Handling mechanism.
7. Refactoring.
And some more.....


It was almost 1:30 and then 1/2 hour break was provided.

Windows Based Application.
Next a windows based application was taught and all students created it interactively. How to create classes, Frames etc were told.

The application simply took two variables in text-boxes and displayed addition in third text-box when add button was clicked. How the code is automatically generated and what other options are available on the pallete was explained. The program control flow through the application was also discussed.
Introduction to Mobile Development.
A small hello world Mobile application was taught. The basic features provided by the IDE for mobile development were provided.

Conclusion:
At the end the opportunities that Sun Microsystems offers to students in terms of contests were told. The open source stance was highlighted and its advantages were highly appreciated. A small assignment was also given.

The response was unexpectedly overwhelming. We plan to conduct PART - B of the workshop next Sunday where the students will be introduced to NetBeans plug-in development , how online projects are carried out using CVS/SVN and other features.