Eclipse for FIRST?

[TheHolyLancer]

Hello, I'm in 1535 and after goggling and failing to find a complete working guide to setup and use and the plug to download for eclipse (the java based IDE for java) i need help in finding links/guide that works.

[gnirts]

Search Chief Delphi, not Google. Trust me, it's there.

http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=50236
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=49359

There's more.

[TheHolyLancer]

but all of these are ongoing projects, not the finished product where i could unzip into the plugins folder or even a fully finished eclipse download and use, like regular eclipse with JDK and java

[chris31]

Look at the last few posts of this thread.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=50236

[gnirts]

Originally Posted by TheHolyLancer

but all of these are ongoing projects, not the finished product where i could unzip into the plugins folder or even a fully finished eclipse download and use, like regular eclipse with JDK and java

Originally Posted by chris31

Look at the last few posts of this thread.
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...threadid=50236

He's (TheHolyLancer) right, though, and I had the same issue when setting up my development environment. There should be at least a semi-official release of Eclipse that all FIRSTers can use. There are several different versions of the toolchain and error parser from different teams and threads on CD, not to mention different releases of Eclipse and the CDT. Also, there should be an agreed-upon installation/configuration of make and the order of including library files in compilation.

The point is there needs to be either an unzip-and-go file with detailed instructions or an .exe installer release for this, and efforts in areas like the error parser need to be combined so we aren't duplicating each other's work. Astronouth's work is great but in my opinion not well documented, especially for those new for FIRST or Eclipse.

[chris31]

Originally Posted by gnirts

He's (TheHolyLancer) right, though, and I had the same issue when setting up my development environment. There should be at least a semi-official release of Eclipse that all FIRSTers can use. There are several different versions of the toolchain and error parser from different teams and threads on CD, not to mention different releases of Eclipse and the CDT. Also, there should be an agreed-upon installation/configuration of make and the order of including library files in compilation.

The point is there needs to be either an unzip-and-go file with detailed instructions or an .exe installer release for this, and efforts in areas like the error parser need to be combined so we aren't duplicating each other's work. Astronouth's work is great but in my opinion not well documented, especially for those new for FIRST or Eclipse.

Between the whitepaper on CD, Astro's work, and all the threads on CD it really isnt to complicated. Maybe Astro can work on some docs, but it didnt take me long at all to set up. Maybe its just that I have worked on several projects where its nothing more than a forum with many people all posting slightly modified code and then the end user having to put it all together. Astro has a SVN server up, so if we get those who are insterested in developing he can give them access and we can have a unified project going.

[TheHolyLancer]

And that is exactly what i want, at least one place where there is a finished zip that works NOW (maybe not perfect to the dot syntax parser, but guaranteed to work on ALL windows based comp) and a nightly build on a SVN server for those that wants to help and test and dev, that is a far better idea than a few unsticked forum post that are scattered around the globe, I mean I can try and read all this for Eclipse, but I'm on final approach on my studies (exam times), so i cannot do that. Atm so i need, for now, an unzip and go Eclipse package or else that mplab is the only way to go.

[gnirts]

Originally Posted by TheHolyLancer

And that is exactly what i want, at least one place where there is a finished zip that works NOW (maybe not perfect to the dot syntax parser, but guaranteed to work on ALL windows based comp) and a nightly build on a SVN server for those that wants to help and test and dev, that is a far better idea than a few unsticked forum post that are scattered around the globe, I mean I can try and read all this for Eclipse, but I'm on final approach on my studies (exam times), so i cannot do that. Atm so i need, for now, an unzip and go Eclipse package or else that mplab is the only way to go.

Same boat here.

Plus, it looks like there are many different versions of the toolchain and error parser that different people have written. If there were an 'official' release, everyone's effort could go into that one product instead of spending time duplicating what others have already done.

Just my 2 cents,
Robinson

[Astronouth7303]

This kind of extract-and-go package is exactly one of the goals of FIRSTclipse. They are currently at http://www.astro73.com/download/eclipse/. You will want eclipse-full-3.2.1.zip, which includes Eclipse, CDT, subclipse, the toolchain plugin, and the error parser plugin. This file is for Windows only.

In addition to the compiler (MCC18), you need one thing: GNU Make. You can use either the Cygwin version or the native version. I will post the native version to my website when I can get through on SSH.

I've found that some of the values have to be handled oddly in the makefiles, as well as the error parser lacking a name. Both of these will be fixed in a future version.

[TheHolyLancer]

Ok I'm going to grab the full and a version of the necessary tools from your site, tell me when the native version of GNU make is up.

[chris31]

Originally Posted by TheHolyLancer

Ok I'm going to grab the full and a version of the necessary tools from your site, tell me when the native version of GNU make is up.

If you just google "Windows GNU Make" you should be able to find ported copies.

[prograid]

Originally Posted by gnirts

Plus, it looks like there are many different versions of the toolchain and error parser that different people have written. If there were an 'official' release, everyone's effort could go into that one product instead of spending time duplicating what others have already done.

The only two versions of the toolchain & error parser, one that I wrote last season, and the one Astronouth7303 is working on. You should use his, not mine. The only reason I have the update site still up is for the benefit of the people who might have already happened to have been using my plug-in.

P.S.
I will eventually (once I get around to changing the namespace from org.team254.mcc18 to com.astro73.fdt) contribute the toolchain plug-in from mine to FIRSTClipse project on SourceForge. If anyone feels like doing this for me, feel free to. I just haven't had the time, thanks to the actual robotics season and schoolwork taking up too much of my time.

[gnirts]

Originally Posted by prograid

I will eventually (once I get around to changing the namespace from org.team254.mcc18 to com.astro73.fdt) contribute the toolchain plug-in from mine to FIRSTClipse project on SourceForge. If anyone feels like doing this for me, feel free to.

Do you mean merge the differences between the plugins? Or just change the namespace? Why would having two versions of the toolchain be beneficial?

[prograid]

Originally Posted by gnirts

Do you mean merge the differences between the plugins? Or just change the namespace? Why would having two versions of the toolchain be beneficial?

I did mean change the namespace, and possibly add any options that are missing, (I don't think there are).
The reason I was saying this is that the extension point used to define the toolchain in the current plug-in on FIRSTclipse is deprecated. It should work for a while, but it's probably not a good practice to use deprecated extension points.. You really aren't losing any functionality with the old extension point though. Some of the non-technical differences would also have to be merged, such as tooltips, option names in the UI, etc.

So you're right, having two toolchains is not very beneficial.