What is the use of Interactive Console in Eclipse (Debug view) - java

Some threads asked how to use the "Interactive Console" in Eclipse since you cannot type anything in this console.
Some suggested you can "Display view" to execute code.
So what is the purpose of the "Interactive Console" then?

Eclipse doesn't have an "Interactive Console" in it's default installation. It just has a "Display" view that you can use to execute Java code in debug mode in the scope of the current breakpoint (to evaluate expressions or to change data)
If you have an "Interactive Console", it's most likely a view from a plugin. I've read that a Google plugin might provide it. Or maybe a plugin for a scripting language like JRuby or Groovy.
If you say you have an "Interactive Console" and cannot type into it, then I suspect you're not in the right mode for the view to be active (maybe you're not working with the scripting language that provides the view).

Im sorry but the accepted answer is not correct.
The console in Eclipse is interactive, when a running application reads from the Console Input Stream.
It is not meant to be a feature of Eclipse to generally aid in debugging, it is meant to allow console based Java applications to read input from the user when debugging (as in I can type into a console prompt).

EARLIER ANSWER (accepted but not correct) :
The interactive console allows you to execute some extra code, while debugging, when stopped at via a `breakpoint`.
This is a really beneficial feature when you are debugging and suddenly want to change the value of variable, execute a sysout or some utility function.
FOR Correct Answer look at the answer below by #mmey.

Related

How to display Javadoc with parameter auto-prompt information in Intellij IDEA?

In Eclipse, when writing code, it prompts for all possible combinations and Javadocs associated with each combination.
However, in Intellij, JavaDocs can only be displayed after all parameters have been entered, and then performing a Control-Q on the method. I can't make Javadocs appear as input like Eclipse.
This is a comparison of Eclipse and Intellij
New feature, 2018.2
Perhaps you are looking for this new feature to appear in IntelliJ 2018.2. See the Early Access Program announcement for more discussion and screenshots.
The code completion in IntelliJ IDEA continues to evolve, and now the IDE shows both all the possible auto-completions and Javadoc, at the same time (without the need to directly invoke Javadoc each time). Please be aware that you need to actually enable this cool new feature. Go to Preferences | Editor | General | Code Completion and turn on the Show the documentation info pop-up in… options.
(source: cloudfront.net)

IDEA: previous commands in console

I am using IntelliJ IDEA version 11. And debugging my application using console.
Is it possible to use previous commands like in Linux shell with up arrow?
Also it would be great if I can prepare a list of commands and then select them in a smart way.
I am afraid that this is not possible.
For accepting user input(e.g. System.in), one can use either the built in console or one can even add an external command line tool as described here in the documentation. In Windows, I was able to successfully add the standard DOS prompt command line program to IntelliJ and use that to issue any commands that would be accepted by the OS, but even in that case, you do not have command history or autocomplete as discussed here
In the Editor setting, I see a setting "Console commands history size", but setting this doesn't seem to have any effect.
I may be missing something, but what console are you talking about? Debug console is output only, and command line console (which is not bundled with IDEA anyway) does have the arrow feature you asked.

How to execute console or GUI input as if it was actual Java code?

I want to be able to input java commands/code to execute during run-time (during the execution of a "persistent" program) in the same way, or as close as possible, to the same code would be executed if it was present on the source-code for the program (programmed as part of the software), using a GUI element, like jTextArea.
The following StackOverflow questions seem to be related, but, along with they'r answers, don't seem to be what i'm looking for.
How To Get Input From Console Class In Java?
Using GUI for console input and outputin java
I don't want to "be able to trigger actions from specific console inputs, and print the feedback into the console", as seems to be the case of console applications described in those question and answers.
What i want is to "be able to execute actual java code, that i cannot predict nor control, from console (or GUI) input".
NOTE: The "i cannot predict nor control" here refers to the "developer"...But of course i can predict and "control" it if i'm the one inputting the code, as the "user" would do.
Since java uses a virtual-machine environment, i think it might be possible for it to execute "run-time inputted code"...But i'm not sure such thing is even possible.
For example, i'd like the run-time input of for(int i=0; i<3; i++){System.out.println(i);} in the "GUI console" (jTextArea, for example) to, upon pressing the enter key or clicking a "Send" button, be ("compiled and "?) executed, and give the same output as if it was part of the original source-code, thus:
0
1
2
So i'd like to know the following:
Is it possible?
If yes, how can i do it? (OR, if no, what is the closest alternative?)
Use the JavaCompiler. It can compile code from a String.
For an E.G. see the STBC & especially the source code. It provides a GUI and can compile the code in the text area on button click.
But note the:
System Requirements
STBC will run on any computer with a version 1.6+ Java Plug-In* JDK (AKA SDK).
(*) The API that STBC uses is merely a public interface to the compiler in the tools.jar that is distributed only with JDKs (though the 'public JRE' of the JDK also seems to acquire a tools.jar). This leads to some unusual requirements in running either the native jar, or the web start app.
You can use JavaCompiler, as this question's answer states:
https://stackoverflow.com/a/935316/420001
Also, what you're wanting to do is evaluate a String of code:
It's not really recommended though.
There is a project called BeanShell
"In short, BeanShell is dynamically interpreted Java, plus a scripting language and flexible environment all rolled into one clean package. "
I know this is an old answer but for future Googlers:
I would recommend JavaREPL whose source is available here:
https://github.com/albertlatacz/java-repl
What AlmightyR is asking for is called Read-Eval-Print-Loop (REPL) for the Java language which is what JavaREPL provides.
JavaREPL has an online demo available here: http://www.javarepl.com/console.html
JavaREPL also has an Intellij plugin and a CLI version which are both linked to in the Github repository.
It looks sort of abandoned currently but perhaps it just doesn't need to be maintained?

Dynamic language switching in an Eclipse RCP application

I am working on an Eclipse RCP application with localization. A user should be able to change the language used in the application on the fly. A restart of the application should not take place during this language switch. It should also be possible to switch between languages written from left to right and languages written from right to left.
Is there a (good) way to solve this problem?
According to this thread:
Most of the eclipse libraries load up their language info on widget creation. If you change your locale afterwards you need to restart eclipse to have it take effect.
You could write that kind of dynamic behaviour into your own SWT program, however (when the locale switches, you'd need to call setText(*) on everything :-)
So this is not currently managed dynamically unless you program it yourself...
Other rcp/plugins application like Birt specify the same instructions (i.e. "Restart Eclipse" at the end...)
That said, a slightly different problem was set in this thread:
switch the language setting, restart, and then run in that language
I got it to work by reading bug 222023 and mimicking org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.actions.OpenWorkspaceAction
I tried it manually:
added "-configuration #user.home/.myapp/configuration" to the launcher.ini
added "osgi.nl" to the users config.ini residing there and it worked.
Since I can access the config-Location via Platform.getConfigurationLocation() I guess that could be the way.
Note: adding "osgi.nl" to the webstart jnlp works too.
You would need to call setText on each widget, with the respective text. Since there is no text variable mapping on the widgets, you would have to do that completely manually as well.

How do you debug a Rails application?

Is it possible to debug a Rails application in a similar way to a Java application - setting breakpoints and stepping into the code?
What are the best tools for this?
I have a hybrid Java/Ruby on Rails application which I can run in Eclipse or Netbeans.
I would like to step into some code in this app and try to figure out the cause of a problem I'm having.
In Eclipse if I set a breakpoint in my blog_controller and then choose the 'Debug' button, it seems to use the ruby-debug-ide gem to execute the code but I get this unhelpful output and no option to step into any source:
Fast Debugger (ruby-debug-ide 0.4.5) listens on localhost:56726
./war/WEB-INF/app/controllers/blog_controller.rb:1
C:/Ruby18/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby-debug-ide-0.4.5/lib/ruby-debug.rb:101:in `debug_load'
C:/Ruby18/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby-debug-ide-0.4.5/lib/ruby-debug.rb:101:in `debug_program'
C:/Ruby18/lib/ruby/gems/1.8/gems/ruby-debug-ide-0.4.5/bin/rdebug-ide:82
C:/Ruby18/bin/rdebug-ide:19:in `load'
C:/Ruby18/bin/rdebug-ide:19
Uncaught exception: uninitialized constant ApplicationController
I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if this is all I can expect.
The debugger I use the most is the ruby-debug gem, which is a gdb-esque command line debugger. Once you learn a few commands it is very quick and effective, and provides you with some handy features like being able to fire up irb in the context of your program and make on-the-fly changes.
And being command line based it comes in handy when you need to debug a on a remote server.
You can expect more. I have used Aptana's RadRails version of Eclipse to debug a Rails app as you describe--setting breakpoints and stepping through the code.
You may be doing something wrong. It looks as if it is trying to debug an individual controller file, rather than debugging the Rails app. When I try to execute a controller file from the command line, I get a similar message:
C:\workspace\myapp\app\controllers>ruby users_controller.rb
users_controller.rb:1: uninitialized constant ApplicationController (NameError)
In Aptana RadRails, I choose Run > Debug As > Ruby Application to debug the app.
For the vim users I strongly recomend looking into the vim-ruby-debugger, which fits in great with Tim Pope's rails.vim scripts.
It gives you a handy :Rdebugger command, allows you to set breakpoints and open a split window to display variable values.
maybe not relevant, but I wanted to post somewhere: got the error: "undefined method `run_init_script' for Debugger:Module" running the debugger in rails 2.3.2. Did a sudo gem install ruby-debug and the problem went away.
I'd recommend just setting up breakpoints (I actually just puts to console) for 99% of debugging with RoR - this method is simple and usable across any IDE, so you never need to learn how a new debugger works.
Actually, I had the same problem with Aptana. Run > Debug As > Ruby Application just doesn't work. I finally made the debugger work by going to the Servers tab, and then start the server in debug mode. After that, set some breakpoints and trigger the corresponding action. Hope this helps.
Debugging? That's just knowing where to look in the case of Ruby (and by extension, Rails) most of the time.
The problem in this case is that you probably still have your ApplicationController called application.rb where it should be renamed to application_controller.rb.
Debuggin in rails is simple if you know how to read the error stacktrace!! But if you need to explicitly watch out the values during the runtime then u can use the rails breakpointer.Below is the link to how-to on breakpointer ..hope this helps!!!
http://destiney.com/blog/rails-breakpointer
I can't speak for Eclipse (never worked well for me) or Aptana (not tried) but from experience I can say that both NetBeans and RubyMine will do what you want. I both cases you should probably make sure that the ruby-debug-base and ruby-debug-ide gems are up-to-date: RubyMine in particular didn't work for me until that was done.

Categories