beer planet » Eclipse

How To Update Eclipse From Galileo (3.5) To Helios (3.6) In-Place Without Reinstalling

Artem Russakovskii — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 23:47:21 +0000

As a developer, I both love and hate Eclipse for its chaotic nature, buggy and sometimes unusable interface, but at the same time incredible usefulness and ability to serve as a single tool for all of my development, be it C++, PHP, Java, Android, Perl, etc.

One of the biggest problems with Eclipse is that there is no clear upgrade path from major versions, for example 3.5->3.6. What I ended up having to do for years is back up the old release, download and unpack the new release, and then try to migrate all the settings by importing and exporting left and right. Not so pleasant.

Turns out, as of Eclipse 3.3 (though I've only tried it with Eclipse 3.5), it's possible to successfully complete an in-place upgrade without doing any wiping or voodoo hackery. I've successfully completed this on 2 of my machines and now need to share it with the rest of the world.

Step 1. Go to Help > Install New Software… > Available Software Sites or Windows > Preferences > Install/Update > Available Software Sites. I personally prefer the former way because it results in fewer clicks but both end up in the same place.

Step 2. Everywhere you see 3.5, press Edit and change it to 3.6. Similarly, change "galileo" to "helios". For example, you should end up with at least these (if you don't have these, just add them):

http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/3.6
http://download.eclipse.org/releases/helios

Note: you may also need to update other repositories (for example, Galileo was compatible with CDT 6, while Helios needed CDT 7).

Step 3. Press OK, then go to Help > Check for Updates. You should see the progress in the Progress tab – let the magic happen, restart when prompted, and after a few minutes, you should have a working upgraded version of Eclipse.

Installing The Android Plugin For Eclipse

Artem Russakovskii — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:36:56 +0000

Today is my first day looking at Android development. My first encounter with the Android plugin for Eclipse has not been very smooth, to say the least. I am not sure if it's Android's or Eclipse's fault but I just wasted 2 hours on errors during the plugin installation and would like to pass on the time savings to you.

The plugin install page provides initial instructions and the location of the plugin to give Eclipse (https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/). This is very standard stuff and I've installed many plugins exactly the same way. However, here's when problems started.

Problem #1: Error while loading manipulator

Eclipse just shows a cryptic Install failed box. Here are the highlights:

!MESSAGE Error while loading manipulator
java.lang.IllegalStateException: !fwConfigLocation.equals(fwPersistentDataLocation)

It looks like for whatever reason, Eclipse's fwConfigLocation variable does not match fwPersistentDataLocation. I have no idea where those come from and searching for a solution (such as this crazy Japanese sourceforge and this Eclipse bug), restarting Eclipse, and beating my head against the wall took the majority of my the 2 hours I spent on this.

Here's the full log, which will help people with the same problem find it in search engines:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.equinox.p2.touchpoint.eclipse 4 0 2009-10-15 13:21:11.224
!MESSAGE Error while loading manipulator.
!STACK 0
java.lang.IllegalStateException: !fwConfigLocation.equals(fwPersistentDataLocation)
	!fwConfigLocation=C:\eclipse\configuration
	,fwPersistentDataLocation=C:\eclipse\plugins\configuration
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.frameworkadmin.equinox.EquinoxManipulatorImpl.checkConsistencyOfFwConfigLocAndFwPersistentDataLoc(EquinoxManipulatorImpl.java:65)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.frameworkadmin.equinox.EquinoxManipulatorImpl.loadWithoutFwPersistentData(EquinoxManipulatorImpl.java:360)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.frameworkadmin.equinox.EquinoxManipulatorImpl.load(EquinoxManipulatorImpl.java:331)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.LazyManipulator.loadDelegate(LazyManipulator.java:50)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.LazyManipulator.getConfigData(LazyManipulator.java:108)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.actions.UninstallBundleAction.uninstallBundle(UninstallBundleAction.java:74)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.actions.UninstallBundleAction.execute(UninstallBundleAction.java:29)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.engine.ParameterizedProvisioningAction.execute(ParameterizedProvisioningAction.java:35)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.Phase.mainPerform(Phase.java:129)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.Phase.perform(Phase.java:72)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.PhaseSet.perform(PhaseSet.java:44)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.Engine.perform(Engine.java:54)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.operations.ProvisioningUtil.performProvisioningPlan(ProvisioningUtil.java:389)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.operations.ProfileModificationOperation.doExecute(ProfileModificationOperation.java:61)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.operations.ProvisioningOperation.execute(ProvisioningOperation.java:37)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.ProvisioningOperationRunner$1.run(ProvisioningOperationRunner.java:94)
	at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:55)
 
!ENTRY org.eclipse.equinox.p2.engine 4 4 2009-10-15 13:21:11.240
!MESSAGE An error occurred while uninstalling
!SUBENTRY 1 org.eclipse.equinox.p2.engine 4 0 2009-10-15 13:21:11.240
!MESSAGE session context was:(profile=epp.package.php, phase=org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.phases.Uninstall, operand=[R]javax.activation 1.1.0.v200905021805 --> [R]javax.activation 1.1.0.v200906290531, action=org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.actions.UninstallBundleAction).
!SUBENTRY 1 org.eclipse.equinox.p2.engine 4 0 2009-10-15 13:21:11.240
!MESSAGE Error while loading manipulator.
!STACK 0
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Error while loading manipulator.
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.LazyManipulator.loadDelegate(LazyManipulator.java:54)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.LazyManipulator.getConfigData(LazyManipulator.java:108)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.actions.UninstallBundleAction.uninstallBundle(UninstallBundleAction.java:74)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.touchpoint.eclipse.actions.UninstallBundleAction.execute(UninstallBundleAction.java:29)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.p2.engine.ParameterizedProvisioningAction.execute(ParameterizedProvisioningAction.java:35)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.Phase.mainPerform(Phase.java:129)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.Phase.perform(Phase.java:72)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.PhaseSet.perform(PhaseSet.java:44)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.engine.Engine.perform(Engine.java:54)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.operations.ProvisioningUtil.performProvisioningPlan(ProvisioningUtil.java:389)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.operations.ProfileModificationOperation.doExecute(ProfileModificationOperation.java:61)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.operations.ProvisioningOperation.execute(ProvisioningOperation.java:37)
	at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.provisional.p2.ui.ProvisioningOperationRunner$1.run(ProvisioningOperationRunner.java:94)
	at org.eclipse.core.internal.jobs.Worker.run(Worker.java:55)
!SESSION 2009-10-15 13:31:40.853 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=I20090611-1540
java.version=1.6.0_16
java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86, WS=win32, NL=en_US
Command-line arguments:  -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86

Finally, I found a solution that worked – modify eclipse.ini (the one that sits in elipse's install directory) and add the following:

-startup
file:/C:/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.200.v20090520.jar
--launcher.library
file:/C:/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_1.0.200.v20090519

Note that the exact locations may differ for you, so figure out what is installed on your machine and replace accordingly.

Also, it seems that the location of the file HAS to be on a new line – otherwise it is not recognized. What kind of shit is that, Eclipse? Some values in eclipse.ini are specified on the same line separated by space, some separated by '=', and some have to be on a new line? This fun trivia fact wasted about 45 minutes of my time.

And yes, startup has 1 dash and launcher.library has 2. /sigh

Edit: it looks like by default Eclipse does come with these options. I somehow managed to lose them, so this is probably my fault. The error couldn't be more cryptic though.

Problem #2: java.io.IOException: The file "C:\eclipse\features\com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_0.9.3.v200909031112-12945" does not exist

Great. Now what…

After examining the features directory, I indeed found that directory com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_0.9.3.v200909031112-12945 does not exist. What I did find though is com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_0.9.3.v200909031112-12945.jar, which is simply an archive. Why didn't you unpack this archive, Eclipse? Or Android plugin devs? Whoever is responsible for this – argh!

After quickly creating the directories and unpacking the .jar contents into them, Eclipse was finally able to install the Android plugin.

If installing a plugin is this friendly, I can only imagine what awaits me in Android app development. Am I the only one with these problems? You let me know.

Hidden Features Of Perl, PHP, Javascript, C, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, Python, And Others [Collection Of Incredibly Useful Lists]

Artem Russakovskii — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 19:38:56 +0000

Introduction

StackOverflow is an amazing site for coding questions. It was created by Joel Spolsky of joelonsoftware.com, Jeff Atwood of codinghorror.com, and some other incredibly smart guys who truly care about user experience. I have been a total fan of SO since it went mainstream and it's now a borderline addiction (you can see my StackOverflow badge on the right sidebar).

The Story

Update 6/21/09: This server is currently under very heavy load (10-200), even with caching plugins enabled. Please bear with me as I try to resolve the situation.

Feel free to bookmark this page and return to it later when the fires have been put out.

Update 06/21/09: I think I've got the situation under control now. The load is between 0 and 3 now and pages load relatively fast. I will be posting about the getting redditted/delicioused experience later.

Update 06/23/09: Added jQuery, Greasemonkey, Ruby on Rails, and Objective-C, broke databases into their own section, and sorted everything alphabetically.

Update 06/23/09: Added Scala, Lua, TCL, F#, Regex, and HTTP.

Update 07/21/09: Added ActionScript3/Flex, Erlang, PL/SQL, Silverlight, VBA, VHDL, WPF/XAML.

Update 10/24/09: Added Flash development/language/IDE, Emacs, Xpath/Xslt, Spring framework.

Update 01/18/10: Added Android (asked by yours truly), Qt, Django, Windows.Forms, R, Lisp, x86 assembly, Grails.

So, one day someone at StackOverflow started a "Hidden features of" post about a famous language (I don't feel like finding out which one was first exactly), and it turned out to be so popular that other posts in the same series started popping up.

Such questions were quickly turned into community wikis, for the purposes of harvesting and organizing information coming from the best developers on the planet and voted by users of the site. There are literally hundreds of answers, sorted by votes.

The Hidden Features series is great for people who are new to a certain language. It shows the ropes and tricks, all in one place, in the most concise manner possible. Even pros oftentimes find features of their favorite language that they'd never heard about.

beer planet » Eclipse

How To Update Eclipse From Galileo (3.5) To Helios (3.6) In-Place Without Reinstalling

Installing The Android Plugin For Eclipse

Problem #1: Error while loading manipulator

Problem #2: java.io.IOException: The file "C:\eclipse\features\com.android.ide.eclipse.adt_0.9.3.v200909031112-12945" does not exist

Hidden Features Of Perl, PHP, Javascript, C, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, Python, And Others [Collection Of Incredibly Useful Lists]

Introduction

The Story

Hidden Features Of

Programming Languages

Databases

Mobile

Other

Hidden features of Bash – also see my bash cheatsheet.