[glimmer-dev] RE: Glimmer setup questions

["Dennis Theisen" <soleone@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hey Patrick, let's get straight to your questions:

Glimmer looks like a very interesting project. I'm interested in using
it to make Eclipse RCP development more enjoyable. However, I haven't
gotten very far.

I've run into the following issues:
1. In the README it states (in 3b of the instructions for using with
Eclipse) "java.library.path; must point to
ECLIPSE_HOME%/plugins/org.eclipse.swt* folder"

I am using Eclipse 3.4 and there is no org.eclipse.swt* folder.

I only have jar files:
org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86.source_3.4.0.v3448f.jar
org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32.x86_3.4.0.v3448f.jar
org.eclipse.swt_3.4.0.v3448f.jar
org.eclipse.ve.swt_1.4.0.v20080910.jar

What should I set java.library.path to in this case?

I'm not sure which version of the README you have, but in the current one, it says that you have to add the JAR-files themselves to the path, not a directory. Maybe try it like in the following instructions on the website:

http://www.eclipse.org/glimmer/instructions.php

 

2. I'm trying glimmer with jruby 1.1.6RC1 (I know I should switch to
1.1.5 since Glimmer is known to work with it) and
> jruby -S rake test_core
produces

 1) Failure:
test_data_binding_selection_property(GlimmerComboDataBindingTest)
[test/glimmer_combo_data_binding_test.rb:44]:
<0> expected but was
<-1>.

Not sure if this is related to my lack of java.library.path or to
changes in jruby 1.1.6.  Just thought I'd mention it incase it is the
latter.

I get the same error for this single test-case (with JRuby 1.1.5), so don't worry! Apparently not everyone gets this test-failure, which seems strange to me, but I don't know what the problem there is. I also cannot start the contact_manager sample application, so don't sweat it, if this doesn't work for you too.
 

3. I have a slight update to the README.
       In "Instruction for use with Eclipse:" there should be a "2a. jruby
-S gem install facets" to let non Ruby people (like me) know which gems
are required.

This is true, but soon new versions of Glimmer will be installable with Rubygems, which will take care of this dependency automatically.
So in the future you will just be able to do: "jruby -S gem install glimmer --source=http://gems.github.com", and that will install facets too.

4. This is a more general usage question. I have an Eclipse RCP
application that I would like to use Glimmer in. It seems like to use
Glimmer you'd launch the .rb files from jruby. If I want to mix Glimmer
into an Eclipse RCP application that is getting deployed as an exe how
would that work? Is it even possible?

I have no experience with this, but it would work I guess. You would have to add the jruby.jar to your RCP Java project, and in the main class (entry point of your application), you'd need to start the glimmer ruby file using JRuby from within Java.

As far as I know Glimmer does not really help with RCP development at this level, only SWT syntax has been added, not even JFace (please correct me if I'm wrong, Andy).


Greetings, Soleone