Eclipse CVS

The CVS Repositories view in Eclipse allows you to paste a CVS URL in the "New Repository Location" Wizard. (If you are on 3.3, you can directly paste on the view without the Wizard) In case you want to browse thru the Eclipse CVS repository, here are the URLs you can copy and paste into the wizard.

Platform, SWT, JFace, Equinox, JDT, launcher, UI, update, search, debug, team, etc) are available here:
:pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/eclipse
Mylyn, GEF, CDT, COBOL, VE:
:pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/tools
AspectJ, Nebula, EPP:
:pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/technology
EMF, GMF, MDT:
:pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/modeling
WTP:
:pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/webtools
Data Tools:
:pserver:anonymous@dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/datatools


If you want to browse thru the CVS, you can use the web based viewer also: http://dev.eclipse.org/viewcvs/
More info on connecting to Eclipse CVS: http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/CVS_Howto

Related:
Searching Eclipse Sources

Exporting Jar - the easy way

There might be times where you want to create the same Jar file again and again. You don't have to run the Jar Export wizard every time you run the wizard. You can save the description of the Jar Export in the workspace and just right click to create the Jar. Here is what you need to do:

• In the first page, check the Overwrite existing files without warning (This is optional, but if you are frequently creating the jar, this helps you saving from the little annoying dialog)

• In the second page of Jar Export Wizard, check "Save the description of this JAR" and give the location to save

• The next time you want to create the jar, just right click the *.jardesc file and select "Create Jar"

One problem with this Jar Export Wizard is that it was designed to export Jars outside workspace. This forces the jar description file is hardcoded with the destination, which means you can't share this jardesc file with your teammates (unless they want the jar exactly in the same location in their local disks) In case you are interested in exporting to a jar inside the workspace or exporting to a relative location, vote for this bug.

JFace Wizard Guidelines

During Eclipse Plugin Developement training, I always end JFace Wizards session with these guidelines:

1. Wizards should be aimed for minimal user interaction
2. Wizard pages can be filled with meaningful defaults
3. When a Wizard is shown it should not contain any errors. They should appear only after a user interaction
4. Present Errors/Warnings in the tab order of the fields
   
5. When a task is split into steps, a wizard page can model a step and shouldn't be doing more things
6. Don't create pages that needs scrolling. In general if a wizard's height is greater than its width, probably it needs a review
7. Total number of Wizard pages should be ~ 5

Once when I finished explaining them, one smart guy said: "Have you ever looked at the New Java Project Wizard?". True. The first page of that wizard doesn't comply with the Guideline #6. These points are not official standards, mere guidelines by me, but still I think they are good. So what is the problem with the New Java Project Wizard and how can it be better?

The options in the first page falls into three categories:

1. Resource: Project name, location & working sets
2. Compiler: Source folders
3. Runtime: JRE & Execution env.

Ideally the first page should just give the resource related options and the others can be pushed to second page/elsewhere. Since the second page allows the user to configure the JRE, source & binary folder, I guess we are not loosing any functionality if we get rid of those options. If the first page is cleaned up to have only resource related options, this is how it would look like:




in contrast to the current:

Wow shortcut!

Now that I've been accused as the evil friend, who will provide suggestions for your itching, let me try to do some damage control. How about letting you know about a cool shortcut? No, not the Ctrl+3, the whole world knows and loves that. This is about copying a Java file from other editor.

There are many times you would be using a TextPad or your favourite trivial editor because you double clicked a Java file from your local disk. How do you import that file into your Eclipse workspace?

Either you can locate the file in your disk, drag and drop to the Package Explorer view or simply Ctrl+A in TextPad, select the package in the Package Explorer view and do a Ctrl+V, you are done! A Java file is created for you in that package with right name and also your package statement in the file is correctly updated.

This is very helpful when you are viewing a web page with code (either some public CVS thru web or some nice tips on the web) you can do a copy and paste them in your Package Explorer view.

Cool isn't it?

Despite the usefulness, I haven't seen this in any documentation, does anyone knows a place with complete list of wonderful features like this?