[forge-dev] Support for the Gradle build system as a plugin for Forge

[Max Rydahl Andersen]

Just a warning about using groovy eclipse plugin - it historically have had a dependency
on a patched Eclipse JDT meaning it's not installable on just any eclipse version.

I would hope if you just need a groovy parser that you don't have a depenency on Eclipse JDT for that
- but if you do then that might become tricky (might also be osgi dependencies to deal with, but 
that is another concern ;)

If the dependency will be included into eclipse as a forge loaded lib we might avoid it all - but
since forge itself also have a dependency on JDT it is something to keep an eye on for possible
version mismatches.

/max

On Sun, May 12, 2013 at 06:00:20PM +0200, Adam Wyłuda wrote:
>Hi Lincoln!
>Thank you for your response, it's nice to hear that my proposal is rated
>positively.
>
>I first thought that creating our own Groovy parser which works directly on
>Groovy AST would be a good idea because that would give us more
>possibilities than existing solutions, but you are right - there is a risk
>that it might take more time than planned (although basic support could be
>provided which could be sufficient to work on Gradle project files).
>
>I have found this paper which gave me some insights on problems related to
>Groovy script parsing and modification:
>http://groovy.ifs.hsr.ch/groovy-refactoring.pdf
>
>It seems that the biggest issue is how to rewrite code without changing its
>formatting and how to keep comments in code. Groovy AST doesn't contain
>comment nodes so if we want to use pure Groovy AST to parse it, we need to
>include all whitespace and comments in our model, what is possible because
>Groovy AST nodes include position in source information, so we could just
>substring our source between statements, but it's hard because we need to
>check thoroughly every expression as comments can appear between any nodes,
>like this:
>x = y + /* comment */ z
>
>So as you said, it's better to use existing solution so we won't reinvent
>the wheel. I think that Groovy Eclipse plugin is the best candidate because
>it's API is similar to JDT plugin used in JavaParser (actually Groovy
>plugin uses JDT and it even seems to be a part of JDT), so it will be more
>convenient for other developers with JavaParser experience to maintain it.
>The are also alternatives like NetBeans or IntelliJ IDEA plugin, but I
>think Eclipse plugin is sufficient enough to work effectively with Groovy
>sources.
>
>Like you suggested I updated my proposal to give myself some time to
>understand Groovy Eclipse plugin API and start working on Gradle project
>support earlier.
>
>2013/5/7 Lincoln Baxter, III <lincolnbaxter at gmail.com>
>
>> Hey Adam,
>>
>> Thank you so much for your proposal! We have reviewed your submission and
>> so far all the mentors have given it a high rating :)
>>
>> I took a look at your prototype groovy-manager project, which looks very
>> interesting. You are doing source parsing for groovy, which is pretty
>> challenging.
>>
>> While writing a parser from scratch can be a thrilling challenge, I have
>> to say that it can be quite a burden! We started writing our own
>> Java-parser for Forge, but quickly came to find that even parsing a
>> type-safe language is incredibly difficult.
>>
>> We ended up using the Eclipse JDT as a base implementation for our
>> JavaParser.
>>
>> Have you looked for any Groovy parsers that may already exist today? This
>> would give you a quick boost when working on this project. It may be the
>> case that the parser would require some usability improvements to make
>> integration with Forge simpler, and simpler for plugin devs, but I think it
>> is safe to say that a search for existing parsers is warranted.
>>
>> If a suitable parser can be found, I would suggest that we revise your
>> proposal to allow for several weeks to become familiar with that parser,
>> and then allocate the rest of the time to actually working with it to
>> implement the gradle support.
>>
>> I'd suggest starting here, with the Groovy Eclipse Plugin - they almost
>> certainly already support groovy syntax:
>> http://groovy.codehaus.org/Eclipse+Plugin#EclipsePlugin-KeyFeatures
>>
>> The problem with writing your own parser is that you have to maintain it
>> :) Better to delegate.
>>
>> ~Lincoln
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sun, May 5, 2013 at 5:05 PM, Adam Wyłuda <adamwyl92 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hello JBoss community,
>>> This year I want to participate in an OS project and GSoC gives me great
>>> opportunity to do so.
>>> Here is my idea as GSoC 2013 proposal:
>>> http://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/proposal/review/google/gsoc2013/adamw/1
>>> I'd be very happy to hear your opinions (I hope it's not too late).
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> forge-dev mailing list
>>> forge-dev at lists.jboss.org
>>> https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/forge-dev
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Lincoln Baxter, III
>> http://ocpsoft.org
>> "Simpler is better."
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> forge-dev mailing list
>> forge-dev at lists.jboss.org
>> https://lists.jboss.org/mailman/listinfo/forge-dev
>>

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