Re: [platform-ant-dev] Evolving Ant/External Tools/Debug Platform

[Jared Burns <jared-eclipse@xxxxxxxxx>]

Sounds great.

Just so I know who to harass if I have any questions, did you (DarinW) do the 
implementation of all this?

- Jared

On Friday 08 November 2002 02:54 pm, Darin Wright wrote:
> Much new work has appeared in HEAD this week relating to the re-use of the
> launch infrastructure in external tools.
>
> A new concept has been added to the debug UI to identify groups of related
> launch configurations. Each group supports a launch history (for example,
> the run and debug histories), and is viewed in the launch configuration
> dialog together. A group identifies the launch configurations that belong
> to it via the combination of launch configuration "category" and "launch
> mode". Thus, the debug UI itself defines two launch groups - run and
> debug.
>
> (To see the new work in external tools, you must turn on the "work in
> progress" preference to "use launch configurations" from the "External
> Tools -> Work in pogress" preference page).
>
> External tools has defined two new types of launch configurations -
> "programs" and "ant scripts". Each of these config types has a category of
> "externalTools". As well, external tools has defined a launch group for
> its configurations. The external tools menu now looks/behaves similar to
> the debug/run menus - i.e. there is a drop down history, and an action to
> open the launch config dialog, called "External Tools...". Tabs have been
> created (based on Simon's work), that allow programs and ant scripts to be
> configured.
>
> When using the new "launch config" support, you will see that external
> tools now use the debug console, and register processes with the debugger.
> This provides a launch/console history. Currently, the debug console does
> not support structured output -  however, color coding has been
> maintained. Simple "hyper links" have also been provided in the console
> that link ant output back to their associated tasks in their XML files.
>
> Implementation of "external tool builders" that use launch configs is not
> complete. Users should be aware that the UI currently allows a mixed mode
> of development. That is, you can use the old and new external tools
> support side by side (since the external tools view is still present, and
> project builders are still configured with the old support). This is a
> temporary problem - when the new support is fully functional, the old
> support will be removed.
>
> Darin