This HowTo shows you how to get started with the new Eclipse Graphical User Interface (GUI) for (Ap)CoCoA.
Currently, the new GUI is still in an alpha state, which means there might be annoying bugs or the look and feel will change in the near future with new releases.
If this doesn't frighten you, you are more than welcome to
After you have downloaded one of the Eclipse packages (e.g. the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers), unpack the package, go to the newly created folder eclipse
and start the eclipse executable. That's all.
You will next be asked to provide a workspace directory. This is where all your projects and (ApCoCoA) files will be stored. If unsure, just take the suggested directory.
When you start Eclipse for the first time, you are presented with the welcome screen, which you can just close.
If you have downloaded the Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers, Eclipse is in the C/C++ perspective (a perspective defines the arrangement of the different visual elements such as the editor, navigators,...) which is the starting point for this tutorial.
One of the really nice things in Eclipse is the ease of installing and updating plugins, i.e. extensions of the Eclipse platform that add new features and functionality to Eclipse, just as the GUI plugin does. To install the ApCoCoA GUI plugin, follow these steps:
Help > Install New Software...
http://www.apcocoa.org/updatesite/
and click Add...Next>
. Next>
.Finish
.You are now ready to set up and use ApCoCoA with Eclipse.
In the current alpha release, neither ApCoCoA executables are not packed with the Eclipse plugin yet. The plugin does also not check for installed ApCoCoA executables. Therefore, the paths have to be configured manually as follows.
Window > Preferences > ApCoCoA Preferences
OK
In the console view you can see now the ApCoCoA greeting message.
All work done within Eclipse is organized into projects. To create a new project
File > New > Project ...
ApCoCoA Project
in the Other
category and click Next
.Finish
. To enter (Ap)CoCoA commands and programs, you need an editor window. Within the (Ap)CoCoA QT-GUI, there are two kinds of editor windows or, more specific, editor tabs: a) the interactive default editor tab, where you enter commands but usually do not edit programs (since the window is cleared after sending its content to (Ap)CoCoA); and (b) the "persistent" editor tabs, where you edit your programs. The interactive behavior is mimicked in Eclipse if you create a special "file" with the extension .aco
:
New > File
.interactive.aco
and click Finish
. Ctrl+Enter
. Alt+Left
and Alt+Right
.Tip: If you are uncomfortable with the key bindings, you can simply change them in the General Preferences (<code>Window > Preferences > General > Keys</code>).
To create a "normal" editor window, create a file with the extension .coc
or .cpkg
. Files with this extension are associated to ApCoCoA editors with all their features (syntax coloring, sending content to the ApCoCoA process via Enter+Enter
,...).
To access the ApCoCoA Help go to Help > Help Contents
. On the left side you find the ApCoCoA Handbook.
To start the ApCoCoA Server, click on the button Start ApCoCoA Server
.
Since there is initially only one console view that would be shared by both the server and the cocoa process it is more convenient to
In Eclipse, it is possible to rearrange the visual components in (almost) any way you like via drag & drop.