Re: [Rails-devel] Build.xml

[Erik V. <eri...@xs...>]

>> Eclipse uses the classes directory to access a compiled version of
>> every .java file, so you can run the app from within Eclipse.
>
> My apologies for these (surely mundane) questions. I'm a rookie in
> Eclipse (It keeps gives me a Way-Too-Many-Features-Overflow-Errors).
>
> So if I understand correctly, Eclipse does not run the rails-1.1.2.jar
> file, but runs the class files in the classes directory instead. And for
> that to work, it needs all the files in the classes directory.
>

It, at a minimum, needs all of the .class files in the classes
directory.  I'm unclear on whether it needs everything else. It might
be worth experimenting with this.

[EV] Eclipse can run from the jar, but if it has classes in its 
classpath, it prefers to use these  (which is logical, because 
Eclipse is used for developing, and the classes must be open
in the wild before they can be packaged).

> Out of curiousity: Does Eclipse actually use the build.xml at all? Or
> does it do it's own thing and is build.xml an attempt to replicate this
> behaviour?
>

Support for ant build files in Eclipse is fairly recent, so I'm not
sure what all of the details on how it's used.

[EV] I suppose you can run a build script from Eclipse, 
but it's a manual action. I never do it.
Building is not well-integrated into Eclipse. Same with Ant scripts,
which I use a lot but not for building. I always run Rails from Eclipse
itself (except when trying from an old jar for problem solving).

[EV] Eclipse also has a separate Jar build function, but that's different.

Erik.