[news.eclipse.dsdp.rtsc] Re: Path-related Errors

[dave russo <d-russo@xxxxxx>]

Brad Griffis wrote:
> I've been discussing this topic with Dave and wanted to make it more 
> visible.  Here are what I *think* we've agreed to, though I'm sure Dave 
> will chime in if I've misrepresented him!
>
> This all relates to the following bug:
>
> https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=277233
>
> I was concerned/disappointed that the fix did not include a check for 
> paths on XDCPATH with no valid packages on them.  The RTSC team did not 
> want this added because they didn't want builds to take an excessive 
> amount of time to fail.
>
> Supposedly this check and others are part of the current "Path tool".  I 
> checked this behavior in the past and it didn't catch these issues, but 
> supposedly it has been fixed now.  The other major problem with the path 
> tool is that you have to add all your paths to it, i.e. that's one more 
> thing to do as you're trying to figure out why your project won't 
> build.  So this new proposal focuses on making it really easy to launch 
> the Path tool with the proper paths ready to go.
>
> Short term solution
> * Step 1:  The Path tool needs an option to fully specify the path at 
> the command line.
> * Step 2:  The error message from configuro should be modified to 
> include directions that tell someone to copy/paste to the command prompt 
> such that it launches the Path tool with the proper path without having 
> to do any monkeying around.  Just copy, paste, enter and it should be 
> running and fully configured.
>
> Long term solution
> * Longer term it would be nice to have something integrated into Eclipse 
> such that you can double-click your "package not found" error and have 
> the path tool automatically launched and fully configured.
> * That solution can be extended such that any XDC related error can be 
> double-clicked and you can get further info, etc.
>
> Other comments/suggestions are welcome.  I hope Dave and the team will 
> commit to getting my short-term solution out the door ASAP since 
> path-issues are a real thorn in the side of newbies to RTSC.
I'd prefer to directly attack the "long-term" solution rather than a 
near-term/long-term approach.  The "long-term" solution is not that 
difficult and it's less work to solve the only slightly more general 
problem of providing trouble shooting advice for common errors.

Rather than creating long error messages in the short term (which 
requires a re-release of the product), we can update the trouble 
shooting section of the on-line docs 
(http://rtsc.eclipse.org/docs-tip/Trouble_Shooting).

There are a number of other errors that would benefit from an error 
parser: http://rtsc.eclipse.org/docs-tip/XDCtools_Error_Codes.  By 
creating a RTSC error parser (and integrating it into eclipse), the user 
only needs to remember to run the parser on their build log (or 
double-click the problem in eclipse).  Having an error parser
    1. allows the expert user to not be burdened by verbose messages
    2. helps prevent excessive build times when errors occur,
    3. provides the novice user detailed trouble shooting advice, and
    4. enables the XDCtools code base to use traditional error reporting
       mechanisms (like that of a compiler)