Description Tod Creasey 2001-10-10 22:51:14 EDT

It is not possible to add an external class or directory to the class path for a java project.  


NOTES:

PM (11/1/00 3:32:40 PM)
	External contributions must be either a jar or a project (a project only contributes its binary output to other projects referring to it).

TC (11/2/00 10:57:20 AM) - this is inconsistent with the specification for CLASSPATH. This is a serious
limitation for anything that tries to run an external program (like the WebSphere Test Environment)
within the Eclipse tool that needs resources on it's classpath.

PM (11/2/00 11:25:58 AM)
	If all you are interested in is running, then you should not need to include your resources on your classpath.
	This is why the notion of build path vs. runtime path can be slightly different. Currently the classpath is very close
	to the build path. We are trying to generalize this for runtime (i.e. rt.jar must not be on the runtime path, but should be
	on the build path). 

	I would say that if you care about resources, then they should either be in a jar (easier to manage anyway) or managed inside 
	a project.

	Once we revisit the classpath->build/run path, then your problem could be solved differently.

	Giving control to insert random source folders on the classpath, which are external to a project is raising way more issues than your
	simple resource access problem. We would have to be careful with grabbing sources from other projects, i.e. where do you put the 
	resulting .class files ? So this is why the only external contributions to a project are either jars or other projects.

	Note: along the same line, random directories outside your workbench are not managed by core, i.e. a change in there will not be reflected
		inside the classpath since no rsc delta will be issued... this is why you want your resources to be in core range.

	We have no short-term plan for changing the current classpath implementation, the current API specification just looks wrong to me.
	In brief, either you manage your resources in a way that can be handled by the classpath (project or jar), or you investigate the support
	you can get from launchers so as to insert one extra runtime classpath entry. 

TC (11/2/00 11:58:58 AM) - After disussing with PM it has become clearer that we need to be able to specify
is additional directories to be added to the runtime path. See PR 1G3SPC3:  ITPJUI:WINNT - Cannot extend runtime path in the UI.

PM (11/6/00 12:22:53 PM)
	Actually, there is no need for a change in the build path. The requirements are only related to runtime path.

DA (6/20/01 5:38:48 PM)
	Problem still exust in build 0.125.