Rival open-source efforts to simplify development of Java software are inching closer together to battle a common enemy: Microsoft. Two open-source development-tool projects--Eclipse, backed by IBM, and NetBeans, initiated by Java inventor Sun Microsystems--seek to make building Java software simpler by defining a common structure to link development tools. Each aims to create a software framework, called an Integrated Development Environment (IDE), to connect code editors, analyzers and debuggers from multiple companies so that tools will be easier to learn and use.
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