[Bluej-discuss] Configuration Questions

[Davin McCall]

Hi Simon,

The bluej.systemlibrary#.location mechanism was removed (a few versions ago, I think, though I can't remember exactly), as it is essentially superceded by the ability to specify the userlib directory location (via the "bluej.userlibLocation" property in bluej.defs). I assume that this latter setting is what you refer to as userlib configuration, however I'd be interested to know how it doesn't meet your needs (are the libraries you want to use are all in different locations, for instance, and is it not possible/desirable to put the jar files in one directory for some reason?)

Just to clarify in case you've misunderstood, and for the benefit of any other readers, all jar and zip files found in the userlib directory will be available to user code in BlueJ.

As for classpath clobbering, strictly speaking it is the java compiler "javac" which is doing the clobbering, because BlueJ specifies the "-classpath" switch when compiling and this apparently overrides the CLASSPATH environment rather than adding to it. That is, the clobbering is not a deliberate action. I would say the main reason that we have no option to use the CLASSPATH variable as part of the compile-time classpath is because there's very little demand for it. Also, I tend to think of CLASSPATH as being strictly a run-time (rather than compile-time) option, though the java compiler's behaviour (when -classpath is not specified on the command line) would seem to contradict this.

Davin




On Sun, 13 Aug 2006 17:42:55 -0400
Simon Read <simon at formasic.com> wrote:

> Folks,
> 
> I am  (belatedly) trying to  organise the localised installers  we use
> for  laboratory and  student machine  software.  I  have two  issues I
> don't know how to solve.
> 
> First, I  would like to  make several libraries available  -- ACM-JTF,
> ObjectDraw  and JOGL  notably.  I'd  like these  libraries to  also be
> available  to Eclipse  users (and  possibly NetBeans  and/or Greenfoot
> users in the future).  I'd like to install these in a shared location,
> but I  can't find  a way  of making BlueJ  find it.   I can  only find
> manual configuration  and userlib configuration.  A  reference I found
> on the 'net to  bluej.systemlibrary#.location doesn't seem to work for
> me.  Using a separate copy of  these libraries for each IDE will cause
> the usual consistency problems with such copies.
> 
> Second,  I would  like users  to  be encouraged  to use  a folder  "My
> Documents\My BlueJ  Projects" for Bluej  stuff.  Though I can  set the
> home  directory, I  can't seem  to make  it be  a subdirectory  of "My
> Documents" (except on the labratory machines for local reasons).
> 
> I think I'm being an idiot,  but why do all of the IDEs ignore/clobber
> the CLASSPATH environment variable?  Why do none of them even allow me
> to ask them to use it?
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> Simon Read
> Assistant Professor of Computer Science
> Saint Mary's College of Maryland
> _______________________________________________
> mailing list bluej-discuss at bluej.org
> To unsubscribe or change your preferences, go to
> http://lists.bluej.org/mailman/listinfo/bluej-discuss