You usually spend about 10% of your time writing code, and 90% reading it. It therefore makes sense to optimize it for reading. Every additional line of code means additional time and effort necessary for scrolling and finding stuff. And, time is money.

So, you shouldn't be sentimental about the code you've wrote. It's a program, not poetry. Delete it mercilessly, and let version control handle the remains. That approach is supported rather nicely by NetBeans 7.2 . It has built in local history, and a huge button on top of the text that takes you directly into the diff screen.