Either You Succeed or Explain

Installing Eclipse Galileo on Mac OS X

2009-10-27T17:53:52+02:00

I wrote two articles on this issue in the past and I'm still get a lot of search hits everyday for people searching for answers, which means it is still a hot topic. Things changed a bit since I wrote the articles, so it's worth brining this update.

If you check the Eclipse download page, you will notice that there are plenty of options to choose from.

The purpose of this post is to help you make the best selection and install it properly. It applies to all the Eclipse packages, including Java, JEE, PHP and C++. I did my best to assume little knowledge with Eclipse. If you still have questions, please ask in the comments.

Leopard (10.5.x) Users

Download the Mac Cocoa 32-Bit version.

The Carbon version is there in case you encounter compatibility issues with older plugins. The 64-Bit is there in case you need to run a plugin which requires Java 1.6, since Leopard Java 1.6 is only 64-Bit. Otherwise, I don't see a real reason to use it (although not everybody agrees) and you will be wasting RAM and machine resources.

Read the original post for more details.

Snow Leopard (10.6.x) Users

Download the Mac Cocoa 64-Bit version.

Again, the Carbon version is there in case you encounter compatibility issues with older plugins. The main reason you would want to use the 32-Bit version is because of plugins which are incompatible with 64-Bit. This time, the 32-Bit version will waste your resources because you will cause the OS to start a whole bunch of 32-Bit services.

Read the original post for more details.

The 64-Bit Eclipse will consume more memory than a 32-Bit Eclipse of Leopard. There's a small tweak you can use to reduce the memory consumption of the 64-Bit Eclipse: add the UseCompressedOops flag to the Eclipse JVM. Here's how:

After you downloaded the Eclipse package, decompress it. Locate your Eclipse.app.
Right-click it and select Show Package Contents.
Under Contents/MacOS, locate the eclipse.ini file. Open it with a text editor.
At the end of the file, add two lines:
-XX:+UseParallelGC
-XX:+UseCompressedOops
Save and close the file.

Full explanation on the UseCompressedOops switch can be found here. Note that this option may not be the most stable: if you experience crashes, remove it.

Installing Eclipse

After you downloaded Eclipse and untar/ungzip it, you will get a folder called eclipse. Several people asked my what's the best practice for installing Eclipse. Eclipse is a bit different than other Mac applications. It needs to stay in the same folder with all the files that came along with it. So, naturally, installing the Eclipse.app directly in your Applications folder is a bad idea.

My favorite is this:

Create a folder inside your Applications folder called Dev. This folder hosts all my development related applications.
Copy the eclipse folder to the Dev folder.

Note that there's no limitation on the number of Eclipse installations you can have in this Dev folder. For example, I have both Eclipse 3.4 and 3.5 installed. I even have Eclipse 3.5 Carbon which I use for testing. You can rename the eclipse folder after unzipping the downloaded zip: I usually use the full name of the zip (sans the suffix) as the name of the folder.

Your Workspace

The default Eclipse distribution will ask you for a workspace by default. I have a number of workspaces and I switch between them. I keep my workspaces under ~/dev/workspaces/<my workspace>

Final Thoughts

Installing Eclipse on Mac OS X is a simple task. If you want to simplify it even further, including ease the installation of Plugins (like nWire :-), I suggest looking into a more user friendly and powerful distribution like Pulse.

Missed Opportunities

2009-10-13T19:24:20+02:00

My mobile phone, a not-so-trusty Nokia, broke. I took it to the shop for repair. Nowadays, they don't do repairs on the spot. You leave your phone and get it two days later. In the mean while, they give you a replacement phone.

I submitted my phone and the CSR took it backstage to transfer my phonebook to the replacement phone. I waited for about 5 minutes and realized that the feeling is almost the same as the feeling you get when going to rent a car (at least for me, I'm a petrol-head): you are really excited to find out you are going to get. Is it any good? Maybe better than what you have? "Better than a deed, better than a memory, the moment... of anticipation!" (quote from the Simpsons, possibly my favorite).

The guy came back. Of course he had this crappy Nokia, looks like he fished it from a cereal box. I can't even write which model it is because I honestly don't know (and don't care). I took it and went on my way.

Then it hit me: what a waste.

Here I am, about to spend two days with a phone which is not mine. I have no other phone, so I simply have to get along. I have to use it. How many marketers get that chance? Get a completely captivated non-customer forcefully trying out your product for two days?

If I was a Sony-Ericsson or a Samsung marketing guy, I would pay to have my mobile carrier carry a stock of loaners to give out to Nokia customers. I would make sure these are the latest models. I would have the CSR ask me, at the end of the two days: "do you really want your phone back or would you prefer to get a new phone like the one you tried?"

Downloadable Eclipse Plugins

2009-10-07T18:57:57+02:00

The following post outline a suggestion for a new Eclipse feature which will make it easier to download and install Eclipse plugins. If you like this suggestion please vote for this bug. Comments and further suggestions may be posted here or in the bug itself.

Here's a common scenario: you are surfing the web, and then, out of the blue, you come across this incredibly interesting tool. You decide to give it a go. What will you do next?

If it is a web application, you would probably signup. If it is a desktop application, you would download it. It turns out that most people will not install it right away. You are now browsing the web: searching for answers, reading articles or just enjoying some leisure time. You are not interested in breaking your concentration and start fiddling with installations.

Eclipse plugins, however, are different. The best way to install Eclipse plugins is using the built in update manager by providing an update site URL. Instead of downloading the software you are left with an update site URL. If you are not going to install the software right away, what will you do? write it on a piece of paper? bookmark it for later? The odds are that you will forget about it a couple of hours later and never install it anyway.

It's a key element in selling software: People who decide to try desktop software should be left with something very tangible: a downloaded file.

Oh, and all you open source developers reading this, trust me: you want to "sell" your software too. There's nothing more rewarding than having people using your software. You won't get money but you will get recognition and gratitude. We are on the same page.

There is an existing option of using the "Dropins" folder. I would bet that most people who use Eclipse or Eclipse based IDEs don't even know these droppings (sorry, couldn't resist) exist. It is not common knowledge when it comes to Eclipse (people working on the platform for a long time tend to forget that).

The Proposal: A New Eclipse File Format

A new Eclipse downloadable file format is introduced. The files will have a unique extension which is associated with Eclipse. Upon double clicking a file in the operating system, Eclipse will receive an open event for the file, much like other OS applications.

The format itself will be a JAR with a different extension (much like WAR and EAR). There are several options as for the contents of this JAR:

A URL of an update site. The URL could be in the manifest or in a dedicated resource bundle file. Upon launching the file, Eclipse will automatically add the site and start an installation process. One may think of more advanced options to include other than the URL, e.g. the feature name to install, which will transparently select the feature and move on the installation phase.
An archived update site. Operates much like the remote installation, but uses the local archive. It would be nice to add an option to check for newer versions.

One may take this one step further and allow the file to contain a complete OSGi bundle. Upon launching the file, the platform will automatically install the bundle and start it, enabling developers to develop custom installers and plugins which will not require any installation (for example, you want to do something just once).

The platform should protect against malicious content, check for code signing and confirm with the user before executing the code, much like it is done today with downloaded content in Windows and OS X.

Future plugin updates will use the current Eclipse update mechanism, although it could be possible to download a newer version of the plugin and install it in the same easy manner.

The result: Installable plugins may be downloaded from web sites. The installation process is a simple process as it is will all applications today: double click to execute the installer, receive an installation UI and complete the installation.

IMHO, the main challenge is associating the platform with the file. For example, I have at least a dozen different Eclipse instances on my machine. Which one is loaded upon double clicking such a file? Well, each OS has a way of handling these file associations and there should be a preferences page for defining which is the Eclipse installation which receives the file open events by default, unless a different platform is already open. Handling the case of multiple running platform also seems simple enough.

Please vote for this bug here.

Sounds simple enough! Can I please have it yesterday? In fact, can we have it for Eclipse 3.4? :-)

Shalom PayPal, Welcome to Israel

2009-10-06T17:04:38+02:00

Yesterday, The PayPal Blog announced that they have a new addition to the PayPal Israel team: Oded Zehavi. First, I want to congratulate Mr. Zehavi on this new position and offer my sincere and best wishes.

As a PayPal user and merchant, I do have some suggestions to Mr. Zehavi. I tried leaving a comment on the blog post but it was rejected. So, here are some pointers to get your started.

1. Nurture your existing community

There is already a nice user base of PayPal merchants in Israel. Most of us are not completely happy with the service and we have a lot to say. Before you embark on a massive campaign aimed at extending your users base: stop and listen. This will make it easier for you to retain the new customers you will gain.

PayPal is an extremely uncommunicative company. Getting quality answers to questions is nearly impossible. Especially if you reside in a country that doesn't have a local PayPal representative. Your only choice is to contact the North American support and they usually fail to answer questions related to your specific location. More than once I got misleading information and had to re-iterate my questions (each iteration usually takes at least 3 business days). Phone support is a true joke: you get to the international support and they ask you for an American social security number.

Well, I know this can improve and I hope it will.

2. We want more features

For starters, I want Website Payments Pro. I want to sell using PayPal without forcing my users to open a PayPal account. On the face of it, Website Payments Standard should provide this service. De facto, this depends on Geography. For example, I have a customer from Brazil which was forced to open a PayPal account.

Israeli vendors need a simple and cheap way to work with credit cards. PayPal is it. Let us take advantage of the platform you already have.

3. Israeli bank accounts support

This should have been number one, but you already know that. Customers in Israel are forced to transfer their received payments through a Visa branded credit card. This is awkward and unnecessary. Enough said.

I'm sure I'll have more questions and comments. However, if you will follow my first advice, the dialog will become much simpler. For sure.

nWire for PHP Released: Code Visualization & Exploration for PHP

2009-09-07T14:12:07+03:00

When we first launched the original nWire, which provided code exploration for Java, we knew that adding support for more languages was just a matter of time. With the support of the Zend Studio team, which is also leading the development of the Eclipse PDT (PHP Development Tools) we are now proud to present nWire for PHP.

nWire for PHP is an Eclipse plugin which accelerates PHP development by helping developers navigate through their code and better understand the architecture of their application. nWire was designed for developers who get lost in large and complex applications. It dramatically shortens the time it takes to read and understand the code and reduces the learning curve for new developers.

nWire was developed with support from Zend, the PHP Company and works with the new Zend Studio 7.0 and Eclipse 3.5 (Galileo) with PDT 2.1. It adds several unique tools:

nWire Navigator - a unique tool for browsing any type of association in the application code: type inheritance, file inclusion, method invocation and more - all in one central view. This view can be synced with the PHP code editor and provide instant context while browsing the code.
nWire Quick Search - search as you type for any element in the system, including methods and fields. Once a relevant component is found, a single click will reveal all its' associated components.
nWire Visualizer - graphically browse the system elements and visualize the associations between them. Filter the associations to produce different types of graphs. Exported images are a great enhancement for code reviews and documentation.

nWire is based on static code analysis. True, analyzing a dynamic and weakly typed language like PHP cannot be complete. Nevertheless, we have some interesting solutions for the dynamic nature of PHP. nWire can even analyze the PHP-Doc comments for associations like field types.

nWire for PHP is available today at an introductory price of $59 for a perpetual license (volume discounts available). A free (and risk-free), 30 day trial is available on our site. It can also work side-by-side with nWire for Java.

Here's a brief demo...