Archive for August 23rd, 2005

Posted on August 23, 2005 - by jono

Subclipse success

For many people, Subclipse (a plug-in for Eclipse) has been either really good or really bad. Reports have ranged from not getting it to work at all to it being a breeze. This kind of discussion appeared on the PHPWM list today as I was trying to fix it. Luckily, I found the solution.

Subclipse relies on a tool called JavaHL. The Windows version of Subclipse (I never knew there were different versions as I installed it inside Eclipse itself) includes JavaHL with it. Unfortunately the Linux version does not. The Subclipse site does not exactly shout about its dependence on JavaHL, and it seems a lot of people have been caught out by this. On the Subclipse site there is a Debian deb source that can be used to get JavaHL. The problem is that the packaged version requires a new version of Subclipse. Argh!

Anyway, Elliot discovered that you can install JavaHL from with the Eclipse software management module. It is installed as part of the JavaSVN plugin, and you find details about how to install it here. Simply install it, then install Subclipse using these instructions and you should be rolling.

Subclipse is not bad. It provides a nice means of managing a repository, but it also seems to abstract the common needs behind a wall of bad usability. As an example, checking out code should be an up front and obvious feature. This is hidden away in the plug-in and it took me a while to find. Also be careful about how you specify the repository. Many people would specify their subversion repository as svn://foo.com/myproject. If you use that, you will only see the subdirectories that are inside myproject and not be able to check out the entire module. To solve this, use svn://foo.com/ as the repository and then you can check out the myproject directory.

After today I am taking a week off. Its been a busy time recently and Sooz and I are going to kick back and relax. Of course, this translates as more drumming, guitar playing, hacking and working on my new site. I don’t think I am physically able to sit still for longer than a few minutes…