Speeding up PDE edit-compile-debug cycle

Question

Are there any low-hanging fruit regarding some more efficient way to run and test Eclipse-plugins (within the PDE)? Besides slimming down the Eclipse-configuration, which has already been done.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I use Launch As: Eclipse Application and I don't find it to be too bad. I've found that changing the plugin.xml (or fragment.xml) always requires you to quit and respawn to pick up the changes, but changing Java doesn't always as the changes can often be hot-swapped in. (PDE is good at warning you when it can't.)

Answer 2

I'd like it if Eclipse could dynamically insert my plug-ins into the running environment -- it can do this with regular plug-ins. As for speeding up the edit-compile-debug cycle, I normally prototype my work in small SWT / Swing applications before integrating them into the full product, but this might not work in a lot of cases.

Answer 3

I usually minimize my launch configuration itself (not sure if that is what you are doing). Here's how I do it:

1. Create a new launch configuration
2. Go to the "Plug-ins" tab
3. Select "Launch With:" -> "Plug-ins selected below only"
4. Click on "Deselect All"
5. Select only the plug-ins you are debugging from your workspace
6. Optional: You can uncheck "Include optional dependencies..."
7. Click on "Add Required Plug-ins"
8. Save the configuration and launch

Now, this might not work in the first shot. This probably means you have an issue with the defined dependencies. This is also a good test for that as well. Fix it, relaunch, and it should run much smoother.