[Wonder-disc] Eclipse/WOLips Problems

[Jerry W. W. <jer...@gm...>]

Greetings,

OK, guys, I've gritted my teeth, downloaded Eclipse and installed it  
with WOLips as per your several recommendations.

I've followed to the letter the WOProject/WOLips tutorials at:

      http://wiki.objectstyle.org/confluence/display/WOL/Tutorials

Mike Schrag, et al, are to be congratulated on an excellent job of  
documenting a less than straightforward process. I got through page  
one, "Install WOLips with Eclipse Update Manager", with nary a  
glitch. Though even that raised a few questions which I'll mention at  
the end of this diatribe.

I clicked on the link to the next page, "Create a new WO  
Application", and seem to have fallen into the hole dug by the bug  
outlined at the bottom of the page ("WOLips Bug: If you DO NOT see  
all of the items listed below, or if your src folder does not have...")

When I created the new project, I DID NOT see all of the items listed  
in the diagram. However, I closed the project, as recommended, and  
reopened it to find that all of the items listed in the diagram had  
magically appeared. WOW! I was amazed. This tool is HOT if it can  
figure out what elements were on that little web picture and just  
create them like I wanted it to, despite messing up the first time  
around. Whaddya suppose, Hamming Error Correction Codes applied at  
some incredibly higher level???

Unfortunately, that was the start down a long slippery slope that  
unceremoniously dumped me into two seemingly unresolvable error  
messages in the Problems View at the bottom of the window:

   * The project was not built since its build path is incomplete.  
Cannot find the class file for com.webobjects.appserver.WOSession.  
Fix the build path then try building this project.

   * The type com.webobjects.appserver.WOSession cannot be resolved.  
It is indirectly referenced from required .class files.

I found it interesting that it couldn't find WOSession in the  
com.webobjects.appserver package, but had no trouble finding  
WOApplication or WOComponent. When I went through the Help cycle to  
figure out how to change the Build Path, then clicked on the Build  
Path preference, Eclipse displayed another error message in place of  
the Build Path pane, telling me that it was missing some other system  
class and couldn't display that pane. Heh, hard to fix the problem  
when a deeper problem gums up the fix-it tool.

I clicked around on a couple other panes, went back to the Build Path  
pane and WHOA...  it just displayed the pane this time!!! Just like  
it fixed that other earlier error. I was beginning to believe this  
tool was fodder for a Touring test...   really, was someone under the  
covers just playing with me? Screaming, "Anjo...  Mike...   CHUCK!!!   
You show yourselves right now!!  This isn't funny!" only made my wife  
wonder about tests a bit less profound but more appropriate, perhaps,  
than Touring tests that might be needed for me.

To cut this story short, when none of you appeared grinning from  
behind the Eclipse window, I deleted the project and recreated it  
with the same abbreviated results. I did this about 8 times to no  
good effect. I can close the project and reopen it with the missing  
elements magically restored, but if I go on, I get the same error  
messages listed above.

Any suggestions as to how to move forward?

Regarding the other questions on installation that I referenced above:

   * Where do you guys put your Eclipse project folder?

   * How do you install Eclipse? Do you drag Eclipse to the / 
Applications folder and stuff all the other stuff that was downloaded  
with it into the /Library/Application Support folder? Do you just  
leave it all in the downloaded Eclipse folder and stick that in / 
Applications, or maybe somewhere else?

   * With Xcode, I can keep all my projects in a directory of my  
choosing (~/Development) under their own client subdirectories. Is  
there a way to maintain this kind of clean separation and project  
organization with Eclipse, or do all my projects have to now get  
stuffed into the Eclipse project folder?


By the way, if there's a WOLips mailing list that I should be airing  
these issues on, I'm open to posting there. I only posted here  
because the greatest personal pressure for me to move off my beloved  
Xcode (despite its spoiled behavior with regard to Java projects) has  
come from principals on this list. (Oh yeah, and the insignificant  
little fact that Apple has deprecated the WO tools).

I'm profoundly depressed and may never refine another Wonder JavaDoc  
unless I can climb out of this hole that keeps me from enjoying this  
thoroughly modern tool that still looks like all those old Windoze  
tools without the benefits of Vista.

The downside of write-once-run-everywhere is you get the lowest  
common denominator of all those every wheres. Not so great when you  
love that old Aqua eye candy and Cocoa consistency.

Regards,
Jerry

--
__ Jerry W. Walker,
    WebObjects Developer/Instructor for High Performance Industrial  
Strength Internet Enabled Systems

     jer...@ge...
     203 278-4085        office