Re: Getting started with Eclipse & EPIC

[kwilliams]

in reply to Getting started with Eclipse & EPIC

Thanks for this writeup. The main trouble that keeps me away from EPIC so far is its script-centric approach. Most (almost all) of my Perl development is on modules and their test suites, and I haven't found a good way to wedge that model into EPIC in a way that lets me work efficiently on things.

Has anyone else figured out a good solution for that? I think it might require a custom builder that invokes ExtUtils::MakeMaker or Module::Build to get things built in blib/ and knows how to invoke tests properly, etc.

 -Ken

[powerman]

Yeah, I also think EPIC is useless in complex projects until there will be a way to setup custom builder (using perl, not java, please! :)).

In addition to perl modules there a lot of other "build environments" which require support from IDE even for syntax checking. Just two examples:

1. html templates with perl code inside (especially one which use custom html templating system :))
2. small files with pieces of perl code designed to be eval'ed in some preconfigured environment: config files, web site parsers, etc. etc. etc.

Also EPIC must support all 'advanced' perl features like attribute handlers - debugger in version 0.4.0 just die when try to open any (script which use) perl module which use Perl6::Export::Attrs (recommended in PerlBP book). (It dies in INIT{} block, so maybe this bug isn't related to attribute handlers, but INIT{} blocks is another advances perl feature which must be supported.)

BTW, just for fun, I notice very cool bug in EPIC bugtracking system: trying to check syntax of this script

BEGIN { 1 while 1 }

if fork many perl processes which use 100% CPU and never kill them. :)

[powerman]

debugger in version 0.4.0 just die when try to open any (script which use) perl module which use Perl6::Export::Attrs

Fixed in 0.4.10/0.5.7.

[jimbojones]

Hi
I'm running Eclipse 3.2 and EPIC 0.5.6. It seems that you can specify a custom external builder (not that I've ever done it).
• Highlight your project
• Right-click, select properties
• Select "Builders" from the left column
• turn off the "Perl Auto Builder" (ignore warning)
• Click "New"
• Select "Program" from list of "Ant build" and "Program"
• Define an external program to run your build.
The external program may have to be another perl script that takes as its arguments the project directory or something. Eclipse exports a number of variables such as ${build_loc} that are defined when the builder runs that point to the filesystem location where the project resides.
The downside is that the output of the build goes to the console, not to a build-specific view in Eclipse as it would with Java, but it may be a starting point.
- j