Yesterday, CodeGear announced the availability of JBuilder 2008, including new tools for code re-use and the inclusion of Swing Designer from Instantiations. It looks like quite a release.For those that aren't familiar with it, JBuilder is one of the oldest Java IDEs out there and this release looks like it really packs on the features. Based on the latest released version of Eclipse (3.3), it includes something they call "ApplicationFactories".

ApplicationFactories fosters reusable developer intelligence that can make developers more productive and speed projects, especially among fluid, globally distributed teams. It enables senior developers tocommunicate intent, capture instructions and recommendations, and point to resources – all in a single, simple tool. Said simply, Application Factories transforms what was once a generic IDE into an application-specific IDE.

Apparently, with these ApplicationFactories you can combine your code and your knowledge into a single module that is stored in a repository to be shared among your team. While this might not seem like a big deal, I know that our team tends to find it hard to switch back and forth between the IDE and the Wiki for information, so this could be a very useful feature.

This release also seems to include Instantiations Swing Designer, one of the highest rated plugins on Eclipse Plugin Central, giving JBuilder top-notch Swing GUI support at a level that many compare to Matisse in NetBeans.

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Other key JBuilder2008 capabilities include:

• Updated support for leading commercial and open source Java application servers
• Collaboration and team development with TeamInsight™ and ProjectAssist™
• Code coverage, memory and CPU profiling
• Thread debugging and request analyzer
• UML modeling and code archeology
• Codemetrics and audits