Java Compiler

Copyright (c) 1999, 2000 by Kevin A. Burton and Aziz Sharif.
Modified by Dominic Stolerman and Dirk Möbius.

Current maintainer: Dirk Möbius ( dmoebius@gmx.net)

1. Requirements
2. Installation
3. Usage
4. Options
5. Troubleshooting

1. Requirements

• jEdit >= 3.0final
• plugin EditBus >= 0.10
• plugin Console >= 2.3
• a Java Development Kit (JDK) >= 1.1, not a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) !

2. Installation

3. Usage

• Compile File

  Compiles the file currently being edited.

• Build Package(s)

  Builds the whole source tree where the current file is in.
  Java Compiler tries to find out the package the current file is in by parsing for the keyword package. Then it goes to it's root directory and compiles all java files in the root directory and all subdirectories below. It does a smart compile in that if the source file is not newer than the class file, then it doesn't recompile it.

• Rebuild Package(s)

  Does basically what "Build Package(s)" does but always compiles every file.

• compile = Compile File
• compilepkg = Build Package(s)
• rebuildpkg = Rebuilds Package(s)

4. Options

4.1 General options

• Regexp for errors

  Java Compiler uses this regular expression to identify error messages, which are then sent to the ErrorList plugin, if installed. The regular expression should contain three groups which can be referenced by $1, $2 and $3 in the three fields below. See the jEdit Users Guide for help on regular expressions.

  The default is: (.+):(\d+):(.+)

• Regexp for warnings

  If a line of compiler output has been identified as error message by the regular expression above, Java Compiler uses this regular expression to decide whether it is a warning message or not. In the ErrorList plugin, warning messages are marked with a yellow traffic light instead of a red one.

  The default is: .+(note|warning|caution):.+

• Parse errors for ^ column indicator

  Sun's Java compilers indicate error column positions by a single line containing '^'. Example:

      home\dirk\jcompiler\Compiler.java:33:
      Public class jcompiler.JCompiler must be defined in
      a file called "JCompiler.java".
      public class JCompiler implements EBComponent {
                   ^
      

  If you check this option, Java Compiler parses the compiler output for these lines. The column position information is used in the ErrorList plugin to highlight errors in the source code with wavy lines.

  This option is on per default.

4.2 Compiler options

• Required library path

  Set the "Required library path" to any directory where you put JAR/ZIP files, e.g. /usr/local/java/lib or c:\Program Files\Java\libraries. JCompiler will add any JAR/ZIP files in that directory to the classpath.

  You can even specify more than one path, separated by the Java path separator, like in $CLASSPATH:

  $basepath = "/usr/local/java/lib:/usr/share/java/lib" or
  $basepath = "C:\Software\Java\libs;C:\Java\Programming\libraries"

• Source path

  This sets the "-sourcepath" option for the compiler. Available only on JDK versions 1.2 or higher.

• $basepath

  Set the $basepath variable to the base directory of your project. Use this variable in the classpath, sourcepath, required library path and output directory option, e.g.:

  $basepath = "c:\My Files\My Projects\TinyFishProject"
  Class path = "$basepath\classes"
  Source path = "$basepath\src"
  Required library path = "$basepath\lib"
  Output directory = "$basepath\classes"
  

  PS: I know, this feature screams for proper project managing, e.g. project files. Someday the ProjectManager plugin will be ready to do this. Have patience and faith, please. {:-}

5. Troubleshooting

I get an error saying that tools.jar cannot be found!

tools.jar is a Java system library, provided by Sun, that contains the Java compiler, among other things. It is usually installed in jdkhome/lib/, where jdkhome denotes the JDK installation directory.

JCompiler searched for this library, but couldn't find it. Please search for this library manually, and configure your JDK to find the library. You must do this, before jEdit is started. The easiest way to do this is to copy tools.jar to the right place. That is, copy tools.jar to:

jdkhome/jre/lib/ext/

That way, the JDK will find the library automatically, and you don't have to configure anything else. If, for any reason, you cannot copy the library (maybe because you don't have write access to the JDK installation directory), you have a lot of alternatives:

• Copy tools.jar to home/.jedit/jars/,
  where home denotes your user home. The following table shows the location of your user home:
  

  Operating system	Directory home
  Windows 95,98,ME	C:\WINDOWS\
  Windows NT	C:\WINNT\profiles\<username>\
  Unix	$HOME
  Macintosh	??? (please tell me)

  
  Using this alternative has the same effect as copying to jdkhome/jre/lib/ext/, but you run into difficulties, if you switch back to JDK 1.1.

• Edit the jEdit startup script (or: "batch file" on Windows).
  The script contains a single line where java is invoked with a "-classpath" parameter. Change this parameter to point to tools.jar:
  

  Operating system	Command
  Windows	-classpath "%CLASSPATH%; jdkhome\lib\tools.jar;C:\Programm Files\jEdit\jedit.jar"
  Unix	-classpath "$CLASSPATH: jdkhome/lib/tools.jar:/usr/local/jEdit/3.0/jedit.jar"

  
  
• Set the system environment variable CLASSPATH to contain tools.jar:
  

  Operating system	Command	Where to set
  Windows 95,98,ME	set CLASSPATH=%CLASSPATH%; jdkhome\lib\tools.jar	C:\AUTOEXEC.BAT
  Windows NT	CLASSPATH=jdkhome\lib\tools.jar	Start menu -> Settings -> System -> Environment (I guess!)
  Unix	export $CLASSPATH= $CLASSPATH:jdkhome/lib/tools.jar	.profile or /etc/profile