Groovy CLI Parameters Made Easy

After getting thoroughly frustrated with the CliBuilder ( groovy.util.CliBuilder ), for its lack of documentation and unintuitive usage, I stumbled upon GOP (groovy-option-parser). Its almost exactly what I was looking for.GOP makes processing Groovy command line parameters (args) easy. Checkout the synopsis on its project page.

On a side note, Groovy really needs a CPAN.org equivalent. It has a fanastic runtime dependency loading/resolving system in Grape. It just need a single home/community for people to share modules just like this one.

The quest for a dark Netbeans theme

Little things in Eclipse have been bugging me enough that I've given up the utility of support from colleagues in favour of advantages of using the Netbeans IDE. The last straw was the difficulty of using a dark colour theme.

Being a long time emacs user I was quite shocked by the lack of dark colour support in both Eclipse and Netbeans. Netbeans clearly has better support for this in the form of text editor colour themes. But what about all the other boxes and dialogues?

During your search for the allusive dark colour theme you'll notice that its the php and ruby people who've done the work to make these IDEs asthetically (and erogomically) pleasing. Some times I wonder about Java people...

I finally managed to get a decent dark themed setup for Netbeans working though:

1) Install the "Extra Ruby Color Themes" plugin via the Plugins->Available Plugins menu.
2) Goto Options->Fonts & Colors and pick the Aloha Theme.
3) Follow the instructions here http://www.mediabits.dk/php/netbeans-the-dark-side/. I think this actually alters things at the java/swing level and works fairly well.

Edit: I'm pleased to say that Netbeans 6.7+ looks terrific on OS X with Aloha. Its not as dark as I'd like but the bright white is gone.