Much ado about scripting, Linux & Eclipse: card subject to change

Showing posts with label php. Show all posts
Showing posts with label php. Show all posts

2008-12-23

PDT News

Some quick announcements about the PHP Dev Tools project:

  • PDT 2.0 now has all-in-one builds, which include all the requirements you need to get started w/ PDT for Linux, Mac, and Windows (all 32-bit). If you're on another platform, you can grab the Eclipse 3.4.1 Platform, or perhaps the Ganymede SR1 JEE bundle, and then add an update site. More...

  • PDT 2.0RC2 is available, with RC3 this week and GA next week.

  • Then, starting in 2009, PDT 2.1 will be on the Galileo release train. Note that as this will be an extra-short cycle (that is, one half the usual length) this release may not include any massive new features. Stay tuned -- the PDT 2.1 plan has not yet been published (because PDT 2.0 isn't out yet, of course).

  • Interested in seeing a PHP Developer package, along with the C/C++ and Java ones? Vote for bug 238960.

  • While so far rather quiet, there's a new #pdt IRC channel. Bear in mind these things take a while to get going, but they do grow in time. #eclipse-modeling is a perfect example. C'mon by and have a chat.

2008-12-03

phpeclipse vs. PDT, Part 3

Well, I may be no closer to having my top ten enhancement requests fixed in PDT 2.0, but on the plus side...

In other news, PHPEclipse 1.2.1 just came out...

2007-10-30

Dr. Strangechannel Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love IRC

An excerpt of today's #eclipse channel log, showing three things:

  1. PDT is hard to install for newbies, especially considering how their website is misleading
  2. some people would rather rant than file a bug
  3. life is surreal sometimes
  4. UPDATE: apparently, this isn't DarthJesus' first appearance

(16:25:52) DarthJesus [n=Godsmith@unaffiliated/jargon] entered the room.
(16:26:12) DarthJesus: how do i change from java to php in eclipse?
(16:26:26) DarthJesus: it took me 17 hours to figure that out last time
(16:27:10) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: define "change from java to php"
(16:27:40) DarthJesus: if eclipse no longer does php i am boycotting your damn product that took 
8 hours to download and used precious hdd space
(16:28:01) rcjsuen: I never implied it did or no longer did php, I am merely asking for further 
clarification.
(16:28:14) DarthJesus: i want to make a php workspace
(16:28:17) rcjsuen: You are welcome to boycott Eclipse though, we won't stop you.
(16:28:25) DarthJesus: it defaults as java
(16:28:25) rcjsuen: So basically you want PHP capabilities.
(16:28:49) d_a_carver: DarthJesus: Windows -> Open Perspective -> PHP
(16:28:57) rcjsuen: So ask yourself, how would I add PHP capabilities to Eclipse?
(16:29:01) rcjsuen: ~g eclipse php
(16:29:01) KOS-MOS: Try googling - http://google.com/search?q=eclipse+php
(16:29:04) rcjsuen: Would be a good start
(16:29:07) d_a_carver: Windows -> Open Perspective -> Other -> PHP actually
(16:29:20) DarthJesus: there is no php perspective
(16:29:39) d_a_carver: DarthJesus: Did you download and install the PDT plugins.
(16:29:39) DarthJesus: you wasted 8 hours of my life
(16:29:49) nickboldt: DarthJesus: if you've got JDK 5.0 + Eclipse 3.3 + PDT 1.0, you get all you 
need for php dev
(16:29:56) nickboldt: ~wiki PDT/FAQ
(16:29:56) KOS-MOS: Check out this wiki article - http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/PDT/FAQ
(16:30:13) DarthJesus: i dont have that much hdd space
(16:30:15) rcjsuen: Surely you were doing something else when you waited 8 hours for Eclipse to
download.
(16:30:36) DarthJesus: i was staring at the screen wishing i was home with my niece and nephew
(16:30:38) rcjsuen: phpeclipse might be smaller as a plug-in
(16:30:46) rcjsuen: Since that has less deps than PDT
(16:31:03) nickboldt: the PDT all-in-one install is 140M; add a JDK for about 60-80M and you're 
done
(16:31:05) DarthJesus: i dont want ANY  of the java crap
(16:31:07) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: In that case shouldn't you have done some research prior to 
downloading it?
(16:32:03) nickboldt: yes, phpeclipse is 60-80M (JDK) + eclipse (40-50M) + 15M (phpeclipse)
(16:32:06) DarthJesus: i just hit download eclipse prior known as php ide
(16:32:18) DarthJesus: you have falsified info in your download page
(16:32:20) rcjsuen: prior known as php ide?
(16:32:27) DarthJesus: yes says so on site
(16:32:31) DarthJesus: on download page
(16:32:33) rcjsuen: Please provide a link.
(16:32:35) nickboldt: DarthJesus: what URL, please
(16:32:38) rcjsuen: So we ca nverify this
(16:32:44) rcjsuen: And talk to the necessary personnel to correct it
(16:32:46) rcjsuen: if we made such a claim
(16:33:00) rcjsuen: on eclipse.org itself, we claim "Eclipse is an open source community whose
projects are focused on building an open development platform comprised of extensible frameworks,
tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle. A large 
and vibrant ecosystem of major technology vendors, innovative start-ups, universities, research 
institutions and individuals extend, complement and support the Eclipse platform."
(16:33:07) rcjsuen: which actually has no mention of Java or PHP
(16:33:24) DarthJesus: http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/downloads/
(16:33:35) DarthJesus: downloads from the pdt former phpide
(16:33:48) rcjsuen: so what then
(16:33:50) rcjsuen: did you click on?
(16:33:50) DarthJesus: nowhere does it say that they arent fractions of the deal
(16:34:10) DarthJesus: no does it say they are fractions of phpide
(16:34:14) DarthJesus: nor*
(16:34:20) DarthJesus: its misleading
(16:34:20) nickboldt: ~bug207098
(16:34:21) KOS-MOS: Bug 207098 - Downloads page claims Eclipse ships w/ a JRE when this is 
patently untrue - https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=207098
(16:34:22) rcjsuen: so from that link what did you click next
(16:34:33) DarthJesus: your wording wasted 8 hours of my life
(16:34:36) rcjsuen:   R20070917?
(16:34:39) DarthJesus: and much hdd space
(16:34:40) nickboldt: DarthJesus: please post your comments in that bug so the PDT people will 
fix the error
(16:34:50) rcjsuen: you just went to the page, then what happened
(16:35:22) DarthJesus: downloads from the PDT (former PHP IDE) project
(16:35:28) rcjsuen: and then?
(16:35:29) DarthJesus: big fat lie
(16:35:39) nickboldt: DarthJesus: did you download the 'all in one' ?
(16:35:40) d_a_carver: Which link did you click, DarthJesus from that page.
(16:35:45) nickboldt: it's only 120M
(16:35:45) rcjsuen: Which link did you click on
(16:35:50) rcjsuen: what happened next
(16:35:53) rcjsuen: you read "PHP IDE" and went "okay i want this"
(16:35:55) rcjsuen: then what happened
(16:35:59) DarthJesus: it should say in big blazing letters if you want php ide download all in 
one
(16:36:05) nickboldt: hehe
(16:36:15) rcjsuen: So what you did was download Eclipse Classic?
(16:36:18) nickboldt: http://wiki.eclipse.org/PDT/FAQ#Installation
(16:36:25) DarthJesus: who the hell uses eclipse for java?
(16:36:28) DarthJesus: o.o
(16:36:32) nickboldt: I've been asking the PDT folks to improve their documentation 
(16:36:32) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: Could you please just answer the question?
(16:36:39) nickboldt: but sadly the best I can do is update the wiki
(16:36:48) d_a_carver: DarthJesus: There are many developers that do work both in Java and PHP.
(16:36:59) DarthJesus: 1.0 Stable Build   S20070910-RC1   2007-09-11 03:30:52 -0400
(16:37:11) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: Assuming you weren't being sarcastic, Eclipse is written in 
Java, so we use Eclipse to write Eclipse, so yes, we use Eclipse for Java.
(16:37:16) DarthJesus: i used the open source whatever mirror
(16:37:23) rcjsuen: okay, so yo uwent to 
http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/downloads/?release=S20070910-RC1
(16:37:28) rcjsuen: then what hapepend
(16:37:43) rcjsuen: Which link did you click on next?
(16:38:03) rcjsuen: There is a Requirements section that details what you need although per 207098 it doesn't include a JRE.
(16:38:06) rcjsuen: there is also "PDT All-in-One package includes the complete set of software 
to start using PDT immediately. This package already has PDT combined with the complete set of 
prerequisites - you will not need anything else."
(16:38:10) DarthJesus: Eclipse SDK v3.3 version used in this build is here: Linux -->Windows<-- Mac OS X.
(16:38:24) rcjsuen: okay, so you downloaded that, extracted/what-not
(16:38:26) nickboldt: ah, so you started dl'ing all the prereqs
(16:38:28) rcjsuen: and now you want PHP capabilities?
(16:38:39) DarthJesus: i only want phpide
(16:38:45) DarthJesus: i dont give a damn about java
(16:38:48) rcjsuen: But I guess you missed the all-in-one section
(16:38:51) rcjsuen: while reading down the page
(16:38:55) nickboldt: DarthJesus:  
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/tools/pdt/downloads/drops/R20070917/all-in-one/pdt-all-in-one-1.0-R20070917-win32.zip
(16:38:58) rcjsuen: but instead jumped straight to the requirements one-by-one
(16:39:03) DarthJesus: i clicked top link on every page
(16:39:11) nickboldt: get that. install that. install a JDK (you need it to run Eclipse). voom, 
done
(16:39:14) rcjsuen: That's certainly fair. I may have done that myself.
(16:39:20) DarthJesus: all in one should be top link on every page
(16:39:25) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: File a bug and tell them
(16:39:39) nickboldt: or add your comments into bug 207098
(16:39:44) rcjsuen: both would be nice
(16:39:54) nickboldt: they need to be told how painfully unusable their site is
(16:40:00) rcjsuen: but you should file a bug for your suggestion
(16:40:03) rcjsuen: because that's what affected YOU
(16:40:10) nickboldt: (which is funny cuz PHP is more often used for web, so you'd think...) ;-)
(16:40:10) DarthJesus: btw use goddamn deflate64 or lzwa or whatever like a normal person
(16:40:15) DarthJesus: .zip is OLD
(16:40:25) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: If  you  have a problem with that, file a bug too.
(16:40:59) DarthJesus: i took atleast 30x longer to download than it should had were it properly 
compressed
(16:41:18) nickboldt: DarthJesus: ranting at us won't help. file a bug and tell the PDT folks
(16:41:21) d_a_carver: Anybody know if the PDT folks are going to be at EclipseCon, we can corner 
them then.
(16:41:26) rcjsuen: Sorry, we're not from the PDT team.
(16:41:29) rcjsuen: neither nickboldt d_a_carver or me
(16:41:37) rcjsuen: you can rant at us but we can't do anything about it
(16:41:46) rcjsuen: and it's just wasting your own time ranting at us
(16:41:49) rcjsuen: you seem strapped for time
(16:41:49) DarthJesus: i can blackmail you :P
(16:41:51) nickboldt: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=pdt&component=Website
(16:41:52) rcjsuen: use it on something that matters
(16:41:56) rcjsuen: filing bugs to _them_
(16:42:02) d_a_carver: We've asked the PDT team to send somebody here, but no takers as of yet.
(16:43:10) DarthJesus: don't use deflate32 to compress the damn downloads, do: put all in one as 
top link on every page
(16:43:45) nickboldt: DarthJesus: don't: bitch at us; do: open a bug. ;-)

...

(16:48:47) ***DarthJesus presses forehard into blank space on laptop
(16:49:09) DarthJesus: your site is total crap
(16:49:15) DarthJesus: i demand it be reworked
(16:49:18) d_a_carver: file a bug
(16:49:28) DarthJesus: its not a bug, its stupidity
(16:49:33) DarthJesus: fire you sys admin
(16:49:57) nickboldt: DarthJesus: it's open source. to "demand" without opening a bug is like 
pissing on your car to make it start
(16:50:23) nickboldt: follow the process and you'll get what you want. 
(16:50:38) DarthJesus: there are 134 people in here
(16:50:47) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: And?
(16:50:55) DarthJesus: i am telling 134 people to get off their butt and fix the site
(16:51:06) mxttie: DarthJesus, you are one of the 134
(16:51:09) rcjsuen: But we don't have access, to that site.
(16:51:11) nickboldt: DarthJesus:none of the people in here are PDT committers
(16:51:18) rcjsuen: nickboldt: At least, we don't think so.
(16:51:19) rcjsuen: ;)
(16:51:25) DarthJesus: then why does this channel exist?
(16:51:27) rcjsuen: mxttie: touche
(16:51:38) rcjsuen: DarthJesus: To help users like you and to help each other.
(16:51:40) d_a_carver: for general eclipse support regardless of project.
(16:51:48) nickboldt: not to whinge about the websites
(16:52:06) rcjsuen: But you do not seem to want to help yourself or help other people that may 
hit the same problem as you tomorrow, for instnace.
(16:52:37) nickboldt: (note it's websites plural -- one per project -- if you (as I've said at 
least three times already) have a problem with the PDT website, open a bug: 
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/enter_bug.cgi?product=pdt&component=Website)
(16:52:59) d_a_carver: by filing the bug reports you will potentially help people that may run 
into the same issue as you, without it, it'll still exist and may never be addressed.
(16:53:01) DarthJesus: ok i will file a bug: use lzwa asshat and put all in one as top link on 
every page or i will blow up the erie canal
(16:53:09) DarthJesus: :P
(16:53:13) rcjsuen: okay, good
(16:53:15) nickboldt: DarthJesus: yeah, that'll certainly be addressed
(16:53:17) rcjsuen: Tell us the bug # when it's been filed.
(16:53:36) rcjsuen: nickboldt: I'll take the benefit of the doubt that DarthJesus is not going 
to write that literally.
(16:53:47) nickboldt: rcjsuen: here's hoping he's being flippant
(16:54:18) d_a_carver: at least DarthJesus if you create the bug, we can monitor it and ping them
on the issue every once in a while.
(16:54:23) rcjsuen: not 'take', gah, bad grammar
(16:54:41) d_a_carver: Anybody cruise the PDT newgroups to see how responsive they are there?
(16:55:06) rcjsuen: d_a_carver: Not me.
(16:55:46) DarthJesus: i've blown up a canal before x.x
(16:56:58) DarthJesus: just get a big enough sodium brick and enough gallons of kerosine and drop
it from a plane
(16:57:58) Zerone: ah rcjsuen :)
(16:59:06) d_a_carver: rcjsuen: looks like they have one guy that is pretty active.  I may drop a
note about a couple of bugs in that newsgroup to hopefully get some action going.
(16:59:13) DarthJesus left the room (quit: Nick collision from services.).
(16:59:21) DarthJesus [n=Godsmith@ip68-99-90-88.ph.ph.cox.net] entered the room.
(17:00:03) DarthJesus: i am agent palmer with the fbi
(17:00:24) DarthJesus: do not associate with the man you have been speaking to under this screen 
name
(17:00:27) DarthJesus: he is flippant
(17:00:37) DarthJesus: crimnally flippant
(17:02:43) DarthJesus: when invited to our office for a job interview he put cappucino mix in our 
water dispenser and mircodots in our tea kettles
(17:03:10) DarthJesus: why does the fbi need tea kettles?
(17:03:17) DarthJesus: ...wouldn't you like to know...
(17:03:30) nickboldt: DarthJesus: perhaps to make tea?
(17:03:41) DarthJesus: ABORT ABORT
(17:03:51) DarthJesus left the room (quit: Client Quit).

...

(17:12:57) DarthJesus [n=Godsmith@unaffiliated/jargon] entered the room.
(17:13:19) DarthJesus: ok who was calling me on the phone?
(17:13:47) ***DarthJesus glares
(17:16:06) DarthJesus: it was some sort of satanic loud annoying beep noise
(17:16:35) DarthJesus: i simply said 'i dont do ctty' and hung up
(17:21:30) ***DarthJesus pases out ..... dart in neck... gak

2007-08-23

PDT: PHP Debugging w/ Zend

Saw a post on dzone about setting up the Zend Debugger for use with PDT. It inspired me to finally try this out.

Installing PDT and Zend Debugger (client) is easy -- just add these two Update sites to your Eclipse and grab all the updates:

http://download.eclipse.org/tools/pdt/updates/
http://downloads.zend.com/pdt/

After restarting, you can do console php debugging as shown in in the above article. Very cool -- breakpoints & console work as expected, and you can step in/over/though code and see variables, just like with the JDT debugger for Java code.

Getting PHP web debugging to work took a little more effort. This is partly because of my eclipse.org sandbox setup, but also because I didn't RTFM properly. Also, I encountered an editor management bug which might be related to how Mylyn and the Auto-pin Tweaklet play together.

Anyway, after breaking with tradition ("hack first, ask questions later") and actually checking in a newsgroup for help, I found a link to Installing the Zend Debugger Server. Server installation was straightforward -- just grab the latest server code and unpack it into /opt or similar, and follow the steps in the install guide / README.

Then I had to simply configure PDT a little...

... toggle my /etc/hosts file, and launch a project web page (ALT-SHIFT-D, W) to try it out.

2007-08-17

phpeclipse vs. PDT, Part 2 [Update 2]

As I mentioned in Part 1 I've been a phpeclipse user for a couple years and have loved it, but have recently switched to PDT.

I'm happy to report that in the last month the PDT folks have closed 3 of the 6 bugs I opened back on 2007/07/23. Kudos to the team for their responsiveness!

In order to encourage more PHP developers to vote for some of these bugs (and to prove that the squeaky wheel does in fact get greased if you write a cogent enough bug report!), here's the top ten enhancements I'd like to see added to PDT:

  • [197565] FIXED: NPE thrown when using PHP Explorer Working Sets in Package Explorer
  • [197572] FIXED: PHP/Script Explorer: keybinding conflict - ALT+SHIFT+Q, P
  • [197579] FIXED: Window > Preferences > PHP > Debug will break if an invalid server config is entered and cannot be fixed
  • [166178] FIXED in PDT 2.0: Provide "mark occurences" action
  • [162771] Detect undefined variables as warnings (already in phpeclipse)
  • [169062] Code completion for file paths in include()/require() (already in phpeclipse)
  • [161760] [Usability] UI to add PDT nature to existing Eclipse projects
  • [197573] [Configurability] Use smaller features (eg., split debug feature from runtime)
  • [197490] [Reuse] Question: Use outline view provided by the Eclipse Platform?
  • [197581] [Simplify?] Question: All-In-One tar.gz contains lots of extra features vs. Update Site?

UPDATE, 2008/05/22: none of the above 7 pending bugs are closed, though one got marked as a dupe of another open bug, so I've updated the number. Nine months later, no closer to closing my top ten list -- so much for the squeaky wheel theory. Hopefully PDT 1.1 2.0's release in September December 2008 will include a few of these.

UPDATE, 2008/09/12: one more bug closed. PDT 1.1 is now 2.0, and the schedule's been pushed back a bit to accommodate all the new stuff they've been adding into it. Coming soon -- new web, metadata and releng content!

2007-07-22

phpeclipse vs. PDT

I've always enjoyed the phpeclipse developer experience, but I've noticed lately that the project appears to have slowed its release schedule, though they have started publishing N builds to an update site. Meanwhile, PDT, as of v1.0.0.v20070712 is IMHO, finally usable -- and also installable by update site (but don't forget to select the Europa site too in order to get all the prereqs).

I'm also impressed that PDT uses WTP's Web Standard Tools (WST), which in turn depends on EMF. So, it's a bigger install than phpeclipse, but it's full of modeling goodness, so it's worth it. Why?

With modeling comes interconnected views such as the PHP Project Outline view (a list of all defined functions (with signature), constants and classes, linked with editors), the PHP Explorer view (like the Package Explorer for Java, but unfortunately using its own set of Working Sets, rather than the shared ones available in other views), and the PHP Functions view.

However, there's a few features in phpeclipse I'll miss, such as:

  • select an include() or require() statement's argument and hit F3 to navigate into that file
  • warning of unused/undefined variables in files and functions
  • search results highlighting (other than in the right margin)

One major inconvenience I ran into, however, is that installing PDT into an existing Eclipse install with phpeclipse 1.1.9 or 1.2.0 causes a whole raft of NullPointerExceptions when attempting to open PDT editors (phpeclipse editors still work fine). I wonder if this is a namespace conflict between two "PHP Editor" editors. Anyway, removing phpeclipse and restarting seems to fix this problem, on Windows XP, anyway. I wasn't so lucky with Linux, but it never hurts to try again sometimes.

Maybe some day these two projects will be able to share resources and features instead of competing, both technically and politically. I'd love to see the great aspects of phpeclipse merged into PDT, and have those developers become committers for PDT, if they're not already. I have to agree with the comments posted on this blog about pooling resources to solve new problems instead re-solving the same ones.