WPILib.h not found in 2015 eclipse

[dxc]

windows 7/64

we followed the instructions here http://wpilib.screenstepslive.com/s/4485/m/13810, then, after using the wizard to set up a test project, the code would not compile saying, among other things, WPILib.h not found.

the problem turned out to be the env var HOME was set to something other than whatever the default might be (because we sometimes use gvim which keeps its init files under $HOME). I found the installed WPILib.h by searching the entire c: drive; on my system it's under c:/Users/User/wpilib. in eclipse under window>preferences>c/c++>build>build variables you will find WPILIB is set to $HOME/wpilib. if you change WPILIB to c:/users/user/wpilib and reindex all works fine. I did not try instead moving the wpilib/* tree under $HOME because I was afraid it would mess up automatic updating.

I believe this happens because the installer uses $HOMEPATH as the location to install wpilib, but eclipse is set up to use $HOME to find it and these values may not be the same. I did quite a bit of wading around on the net without finding clear supporting evidence, all I know is the above fix worked for me.

<edit> it would be better if the installer put wpilib somewhere specified at install time with a default like c:\wpilib or similar (similar to the way c:\frc works). the HOME/HOMEPATH issue will be a problem on any machine where more than one login exists.

[dxc]

one more thing, this happened to us on two machines. one had several years of install/uninstall cycles on it (and hence unknown registry crud, etc), but the other had never had a wpilib install, i.e. for this purpose it was completely clean. the modified value of HOME is what they had in common.

[Joe Ross]

I'm not sure that there is an easy cross-platform solution to the user specifying $HOME, which overrides eclipse's default.

Installing to the user's directory makes installation and updates possible without administrative rights, which makes it possible to install on many locked down configurations like you might find at a school. Java has always been like this.