External Execution API is a NetBeans module providing machinery to run external process in a comfortable way. It handles the lifecycle, streams and it may provide UI representation. It also workarounds certain JDK issues and provides additional functions which would be otherwise platform specific.
The module is now heavily used in many areas (more than 50 other modules depends on it) and it is still evolving in a compatible way.
The sources are part of the NetBeans repository.
Oracle Corporation