DNA Development

IDE

The initial committers for the DNA project all used, and continue to use, Eclipse for their IDE.  Having all developers utilize the same IDE has provided several advantages, including:

• We can configure additional warnings or errors to be generated when appropriate during compilation as an aid to further ensure the quality of committed code.

• We can use the provided formatting capabilities, with an agreed upon configuration, to ensure code maintains a certain style across the project while minimizing formatting changes that don't have significant impact on the execution of the code but make it difficult to track actual bug fixes and enhancements in change histories.

To ensure we maintain these advantages, we ask all developers (customers writing to the DNA API/SPI, contributors, and committers) to use the Eclipse IDE version 3.4 (Ganymede) when working with DNA, and just as importantly, to import the Eclipse preferences and formatter profile that are provided in the root of the DNA SVN repository trunk:

Code Formatter

1. Import into Eclipse using the File->Import... menu option.

2. From the Import Preferences wizard, select General->Preferences.

3. Press Next>.

4. Press Browse... to open the Import from File dialog.

5. Navigate to eclipse-code-formatter-profile.xml in the SVN trunk folder for DNA on your file system.

6. Press OK.

7. Ensure Import all is selected.  Note, the text area under Preferences will be empty and the text area under Description will indicate an "Empty list.".

8. Press Finish.

Code generation and Compiler Preferences

1. Open the Preferences dialog using the Windows->Preferences... menu option.

2. In the category tree to the left, navigate to Java->Code Style->Formatter.

3. Press Import... to open the Import Profile dialog.

4. Navigate to eclipse-preferences.epf in the SVN trunk folder for DNA on your file system.

5. Press OK (on the Import Profile dialog).

6. Press OK (on the Preferences dialog).