CVS Repository Overview

DICE Commands

• export CVS_RSH=ssh
• cvs -d sXXXXXXX@cvsREMOVE_THIS.inf.ed.ac.uk:/disk/cvs/Prism checkout .

Obviously replace sXXXXXXX with your own matric number. Note that this will check out the code into the current directory you are in.

IDE Settings

When you check-out the project from CVS you should find that the project is ready to go in both Eclipse and Netbeans. It's worth noting that most of the existing forms have been designed using Netbeans Matisse form designer, and that this should be used to edit existing forms.

Eclipse

The following Eclipse project files are checked into CVS:

• .project - Ensures that the project is always opened as a Java project.
• .classpath - Sets the classpath for the project so that Eclipse can syntax check and autocomplete correctly. Native libraries are not set (as these are machine dependant) and so you probably won't be able to run files using Eclipse's internal build system; use the xprism target in Ant.
• .settings/ - Contains various project settings, including compiler settings to make sure that the sourcelevel is correct. Code formatting may be added to this.

One thing isn't included:

• .externalToolBuilders - Contains the data for Eclipse's launch configurations. Ignored so that you can set your own launch configs.

So what you need to know:

• If you add need to add anything to the classpath then make sure you add it to Eclipse's classpath and commit .project.
• Otherwise leave other settings alone!

Netbeans

Netbeans' nbproject folder is checked in and sets the project up as a Java project with the correct classpath. Netbeans won't let you exclude certain directories from it's sourcepath so you may see it mark certain files with erroneous compile errors.

If you change the project settings then Netbeans will convert all the paths (source path, build path etc.) to absolute paths. Thus if you need to edit the paths in anyway then you must make sure that you manually check nbproject/project.xml to make sure all paths are relative (eg. src, build).

-- ChrisPaton - 04 Oct 2006

The Build System

In the labs earlier today a few of us were chatting about the build system that Prism uses. It uses a Makefile to compile both the C/C++ and Java. This isn't ideal as it means that:

• the C/C++ needs to be recompiled a lot;
• Windows users need to install Cygwin/MinGW to compile;
• 64 bit users have difficulty compiling at all.

In order to resolve this Alistair and Chris have written an Ant build.xml which allows you to simply run the GUI and compile only the Java source code. This is in CVS now so you should be able to run ant xprism to run the GUI.

It's important to note that you still need binary versions of the native libraries that the Makefile compiles from the C/C++. You can get copies of these from the http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~dxp/prism/download.php. Once you've got the binary version for your system them you need to copy the .dll (Windows) or .so (Linux) files into prism/lib/. Then you need to tell the build file about this by creating a file called user.build.properties in your prism dir and putting the line:

lib.natives.dir = lib/win32

in it (replacing win32 with your OS/architecture).

Hopefully this should all make sense when you check it out and take a look. With a bit of luck it should give you a helpful error message if you miss anything!

-- AlanCampbell - 03 Oct 2006