Build from Source: Guide?

rschumm wrote on Tue Oct 25 09:31:40 MEST 2005:
Could somebody do a step-by-step instruction how to build e-p-i-c from source
for an average Eclipse User? 
As I have heard about Eclipse and its Plugin-Architecture it should not
be to difficult. 

So the concrete Questions: 
- which Modules to check out from CVS?
- which build.xml files to run in which order? 
- how to build and run directly in an Eclipse instance? 

If such a guide already exists somewhere it would be nice to have the URL
posted. 
ptica wrote on Tue Oct 25 10:33:48 MEST 2005:
hi, i am also interested in this topic

my findings so far:
ANTRL - got no idea
org.epic.debug - needed
org.epic.ext.cbg.editor - needed
org.epic.feature.main - needed
org.epic.perleditor - needed
org.epic.regexp - needed
org.epic.spellchecker - got no idea
org.epic.perleditor-test  - JUnit tests - probably not needed just for build
org.epic.updatesite 

org.epic.ext.unsupported.colorer - according to changelog, this was abandoned
ong time ago

ptica wrote on Tue Oct 25 10:39:00 MEST 2005:
maybe this helps
http://sourceforge.net/forum/message.php?msg_id=3062544
ptica wrote on Tue Oct 25 14:03:29 MEST 2005:
1] get these modules from cvs 
org.epic.debug
org.epic.ext.cbg.editor
org.epic.feature.main
org.epic.perleditor
org.epic.regexp
org.epic.updatesite
be warned, using a pserver protocol sometimes results into timeouts - sf.net
is not perfect :(
if you get more then 2 compile errors in checked-outed module - check out
again

those 2 compile errors can be caused by java 1.5 syntax  (asserts), switch
it in preferences

2] build all
be warned that site build will probalby throw an error -dont-mind it, jars
will be still there

2.5] disable your old epic

3] help/software updates/find+install/new ones/new local site/ choose your
checked out org.epic.updatesite, confirm, voila

hope it helps

jploski wrote on Tue Oct 25 19:14:09 MEST 2005:
Here is a quote from an email I once sent to a guy asking similar questions:

CVS for EPIC plug-ins is set up just like for any other Eclipse plug-in,
so you may wish to consult some generic documentation (for example,
Eclipse's online help; I also recommend Erich Gamma's "Contributing
to Eclipse" book, which used to be online).

I suppose you already know how to check out Java projects from sf.net CVS
with Eclipse. After checking out, you should have the following projects
in your workspace:

org.epic.debug
org.epic.ext.cbg.editor
org.epic.perleditor
org.epic.perleditor-test
org.epic.regexp

Each of these projects represents an Eclipse plug-in. There are
dependencies between these plug-ins and also to platform plug-ins.
For this reason they might not compile right after checkout. Even
if they do, the next step is to import Eclipse plug-ins on which EPIC
depends into your workspace, so that you can learn from them, step
through with debugger and possibly modify them (while debugging).

To import the plug-ins, open the "File/Import.../External Plug-Ins and
Fragments" wizard, check "Import as projects with source folders",
on the next page first add org.epic.* to the right pane, then click on
"Required plug-ins", then REMOVE org.epic.* from the right pane, finish.

If you have autobuild enabled, this will start a very long build of
all imported plug-ins. You may run out of memory if you have less than
256 MB available to Eclipse. (Edit Eclipse's command-line parameters
to increase memory, e.g.: ./eclipse $* -data $USER_HOME -vmargs -Xmx400M)

The org.epic.* plug-ins should now compile fine.

For development you need to set up a new run configuration (Run/Run...)
of type "Eclipse Application". You basically specify the path to
a workspace there (can be to a non-existing folder - a new workspace
will be created there in this case) and also specify the set of plug-ins
which should be available in the "hosted" Eclipse workbench (the default
"Launch with all workspace and enabled external plug-ins will do).

When you launch this run configuration (in Run or Debug mode), a new
instance of Eclipse is started which uses code from the host workspace.
So you can try any changes you have made.

To build a plug-in for distribution, right-click on the file plugin.xml
in
its project and choose "PDE Tools/Create Ant build file". This will create
a build.xml file with target 'zip.plugin', which creates a zip archive
with the plug-in code and sources. This zip archive can be unzipped
under $ECLIPSE_HOME/plugins to install.

I started writing automated test suites for EPIC
(org.epic.perleditor-test). See README.txt in that project to learn
how to make the tests run. Testing Eclipse plug-ins is explained at
length in Gamma's book. IMHO, EPIC has not enough software quality
assurance.
rschumm wrote on Fri Oct 28 14:18:20 MEST 2005:
Thank you very much! 
So I'll do a quick résumé: 
- if you'de like to run and debug e-p-i-c as developer, read jpolki's post
in this thread
- if you just want to use e-p-i-c from cvs then read ptica's post. 

super! :-) 

Note: The above is an archived snapshot of a forum thread. Use the original thread at sf.net to post comments.