I've decided that a proper IDE would be a good idea to make keeping track of my work easier. I'm looking to integrate CVS and SCP functionality which it looks should be fairly simple.
I've tried to follow the guide to ecplise on moodledocs but can't seem to find the right options in the right places (presumably someone has been tinkering with the interface since the guide was written)
Can anyone help me with getting the right add-ons installed and working?
Thanks,
Mike
Hi,
For basic usage you don't need any add-ons if you download Eclipse PDT.
Download here
You want the all-in-one download. Note that this comes with an old version of Eclipse (3.3). That's because they haven't yet released PDT for the current version 3.4. SIGH. If you want to use Eclipse 3.4 you have to try the beta 2.0 PDT, so er, good luck with that.
I am not sure whether this includes the web tools (WST? something like that) which gives you xml, css, etc editors, if not you might want those as well. You can install these from the Help/Software Updates/Find new stuff (it's not really called that, I forget the exact name) menu. The software update got much improved in 3.4, so it's annoying that you have to use the crappy old one... also I tend to find that the 'update existing' in 3.3 now just breaks, so i would avoid that option.
Obviously CVS is built-in, don't know what SCP is.
--sam
For basic usage you don't need any add-ons if you download Eclipse PDT.
Download here
You want the all-in-one download. Note that this comes with an old version of Eclipse (3.3). That's because they haven't yet released PDT for the current version 3.4. SIGH. If you want to use Eclipse 3.4 you have to try the beta 2.0 PDT, so er, good luck with that.
I am not sure whether this includes the web tools (WST? something like that) which gives you xml, css, etc editors, if not you might want those as well. You can install these from the Help/Software Updates/Find new stuff (it's not really called that, I forget the exact name) menu. The software update got much improved in 3.4, so it's annoying that you have to use the crappy old one... also I tend to find that the 'update existing' in 3.3 now just breaks, so i would avoid that option.
Obviously CVS is built-in, don't know what SCP is.
--sam
To keep track of your work on moodle, more important than the IDE is the version control system. Several people doing customisations on top of moodle are using git, which works great for this. (Search old threads in this forum for lots and lots of posts about it)
And you can use any IDE with it -- some have more support for it, some have less. But git is enormously powerful when driven from the commandline
And you can use any IDE with it -- some have more support for it, some have less. But git is enormously powerful when driven from the commandline
(Martin! You troll! )
To the original poster: Give it a try if you're brave. There are definitely advantages, if you can stomach it. However I personally still think that unless you are an ubergeek - and maybe you are, I wouldn't know - you probably shouldn't touch git with a bargepole.
There are three reasons:
1) Moodle core does not (yet) use git.
2) Git has poor/no integration in popular IDEs so is not particularly friendly to use. There is more work all the time on its Eclipse plugin, but it's not really ready for use yet. Once the Eclipse plugin is in place, the other Java-based IDEs will soon follow because they reuse the same core code (actually, there's already a similarly unfinished NetBeans plugin).
3) Git concepts are complex - combine this with the lack of a friendly GUI to get you started and you can easily get into trouble.
Leaving aside the technical enhancements (...and complexities), git's commandline tools are better than CVS's execrable commandline tools - almost but not quite to the point of actually being usable - and then the backend seems to be a pretty great version control system. I certainly hope to use it before too much longer. But using version control from the commandline is basically like a big kick in the head. Not too bad occasionally but if it happened every day you'd probably not last long.
You can of course use Git command-line with Eclipse as a slightly-intelligent* editor that eats memory for breakfast. If you try that, you may want to turn on the auto-refresh feature so you don't have to keep telling Eclipse that git changed your project files. It's a shame to miss out on the hugely-slick CVS integration, though.
--sam
* Like, you can ctrl-click on a function name to jump to the definition. Usually. And complete words with ctrl-space. And it shows you documentation in popups, if you're lucky and if there is any. The basics.
To the original poster: Give it a try if you're brave. There are definitely advantages, if you can stomach it. However I personally still think that unless you are an ubergeek - and maybe you are, I wouldn't know - you probably shouldn't touch git with a bargepole.
There are three reasons:
1) Moodle core does not (yet) use git.
2) Git has poor/no integration in popular IDEs so is not particularly friendly to use. There is more work all the time on its Eclipse plugin, but it's not really ready for use yet. Once the Eclipse plugin is in place, the other Java-based IDEs will soon follow because they reuse the same core code (actually, there's already a similarly unfinished NetBeans plugin).
3) Git concepts are complex - combine this with the lack of a friendly GUI to get you started and you can easily get into trouble.
Leaving aside the technical enhancements (...and complexities), git's commandline tools are better than CVS's execrable commandline tools - almost but not quite to the point of actually being usable - and then the backend seems to be a pretty great version control system. I certainly hope to use it before too much longer. But using version control from the commandline is basically like a big kick in the head. Not too bad occasionally but if it happened every day you'd probably not last long.
You can of course use Git command-line with Eclipse as a slightly-intelligent* editor that eats memory for breakfast. If you try that, you may want to turn on the auto-refresh feature so you don't have to keep telling Eclipse that git changed your project files. It's a shame to miss out on the hugely-slick CVS integration, though.
--sam
* Like, you can ctrl-click on a function name to jump to the definition. Usually. And complete words with ctrl-space. And it shows you documentation in popups, if you're lucky and if there is any. The basics.
I've got the add-ons and SCP (file transfer over SSH) working fine.
SCP is being blocked by the firewall which IT should get around to sorting next week.
Thanks,
Mike
SCP is being blocked by the firewall which IT should get around to sorting next week.
Thanks,
Mike
I meant cvs is being blocked.