How to Build "Thinking in Java" Example Files to Run in Eclipse IDE?

I wanted to learn Java, as recommended by most of the people I downloaded "Thinking in Java" eBook and Source Code Example Lesson files from mindv开发者_JAVA技巧iewinc.com it's download location is this http://www.mindviewinc.com/TIJ4/CodeInstructions.html

These files don't work with Eclipse IDE for some reasons. So we have to build the files using the Build.xml file included in it's source code (Honestly, I do not have any idea what does "build" means here)

I tried building myself but of no use.. It did started building but after reaching some folder it stopped and gave error to install jboss-osgi-installer-1.0.0.jar .. After downloading it, I had no idea what to do with it, so I double clicked it and it asked me the location to install and I installed it in the default location, which was C:\Users\Username/jboss-osgi-1.0.0 and when I tried C:\Program Files\Java** the installation gave error that "this directory cannot be written, please choose another directory!" but anyway I installed it in the default location and it installed..

and again when I tried to build it, it gave me the same error and asked to Install Jboss....... I'm stuck.. This is happening again and again, wasted many days and didn't even crossed 100 pages of it's pdf because of this reason. It's a good eBook though.

I'm stuck in this from months... Please some one build it and make it like a project which could be easily and send me the project file, it would be really appreciated as I can not the solution to this anywhere on search engines..

Ok here's what I did to succesfully import the sources found in the "accesss" folder of you code samples:

1. Download the javassist jar as per Bruce's instructions, from here:

http://repo2.maven.org/maven2/javassist/javassist/3.9.0.GA/javassist-3.9.0.GA.jar

1. You must create an Eclipse project for the sources that are used as dependencies for most of the examples, that's the sources in the "net" folder:

   • in eclipse make new java project.
   • select the "net" directory, copy it, then in eclipse select the "src" entry in the project you just made, right click on it and select paste.
   • after eclipse finishes and auto-builds, it will complain about the missing javaassist jar. Right click on the project ->properties->java build path (on the left)->libraries (on the top)-> add external jars... (on the right), browse and select the javassist jar from where you down load it.
   • now the "net" project should be ok in eclipse

2. Now let's create the project for the sources in the "access" folder:

   • create a new java project in eclipse
   • Now, because Bruce structured his classes like crap, we'll have to make the proper structure in eclipse for them. This means: a.create a new package called "access"
   • go to where your the access folder is on your drive, open it, select ONLY the folders (cookie2, desser, mypackage), copy them, then return to eclipse, right click on the "access" package u just made and click paste
   • now go back to the access dir on your drive, select ONLY the .java files (all of them, not the dirs), copy them, the back to eclipse, click on the src entry in the access project and click paste.

3. The access project in elcipse will still complain about missing classes form the "net" resouce. Right click on the project in eclipse->properties->java build path->projects (on the top)-> add(on the right)-> check the net project you created earlier-> click ok twice.

Now it should be ok

I hope you got the idea on how dependencies work in eclipse with this example.

For the other parts of you code samples, create separate java projects, add the classes to the proper package (create the packages if Bruce forgot to), and if you are missing external jars, go to http://search.maven.org search and download the jars. Good luck

"This code is designed to work outside of IDEs. Because packages are not introduced until later chapters, and some of the fancier IDEs like Eclipse require all code to be in packages, if you want to use the code inside those IDEs you will have to make some adjustments" - yep, bruce eckel would say that, cause that's the kind of guy he is. He also said there's ONLY checked exceptions in java, and asked for unchecked exeptions to be added as a bonus.

Now, if your sample code has no package, aka it's in the default package, aka when you look in the .java file, right at the top there's no line saying "package what.ever.bla" then all you have to do is:

-in Eclipse create a new Java se project - open a windows explorer, go to your .java files, select them and copy them - then in eclipse, right click the src folder in your project and chose "paste"

The files should be added to a "default" package in your eclipse project, without any error

Here is the simplest steps that I find to create a clean Eclipse project for the TIJ4 source code:

1. Download the source code zip from: http://www.mindviewinc.com/TIJ4/CodeInstructions.html, and unzip it to a folder, say 'TIJ4-code';
2. Download the additional libraries as in the previous URL, copy tools.jar from your current JDK's lib directory, and put them into TIJ4-code/lib;
3. Go into the 'TIJ4-code' folder, and run 'python Eclipse.py' (you need python installed on your system). This script adds the missing "package xxx" line to those source java files which don't yet have them, so as to make Eclipse happy. It also generates the Eclipse project files, which doesn't work well for some reason (beyond my limited knowledge on Eclipse), but they aren't needed here;
4. Open Eclipse and create a new empty java project, say with name 'TIJ4', choose JRE version 1.5, and "create separate folders for sources and class files";
5. Copy TIJ4-code/lib directory to your new Eclipse project folder;
6. Right click on the new project and select "Build Path" >> "Configure Build Path", then go to tab "Libraries", "add jars", then select all the jars under your project's lib folder;
7. Go to "File >> import", choose "General >> File System", select the unzipped folder 'TIJ4-code' as your "From directory". Check the root 'TIJ4-code' in the left panel of the import window, Click on "filter types" and select the .java, so that unnecessary files of other extensions, like *.class, *.py, *.xml, etc can be ignored during the import;

The zipped folder is no longer needed after the new Eclipse project is built. I hope you find this instruction helpful, and have fun learning TIJ4.

If you want to use this code in IDE rather than Eclipse and so on, for example in Intelij Idea or any other, the best way is to compile necessary classes from the TIJ4 with Ant, but it is not easy for the beginners, although it will be a good practice for you. You should make some changes in build.xml files which exists in every directory of TIJ4. Why?

• to change version of Java(now we all use Java version higher than 1.5)
• to include javaassist.jar library in the "classpath"
• to put all compiled files in 'bin' directory(by default without adjustments TIJ4 build.xml puts .class files in the same directory with .java files. That is not a good deal.
  

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For example you need to import and use within IDE(I use Intelij Idea) the class named net.mindview.util.Print ( see Chapter 3):

1. download TIJ4 and unzip in any directory you want(for example it would be c:\eckel)
2. download and install AntApache (you can find detailed instructions how to do it in Google) The result is - type in your console ant -version and you should see the answer. So Ant is working.
3. download javaassist.jar from http://jboss-javassist.github.io/javassist/ . Unzip to any directory, take out javassist.jar and past it to c:\eckel\net

4.There is build.xml file in c:\eckel\net. Now you should make adjustments. Open it with NotePad++ or other editor.

• If you don't have Java 1.5 installed on your PC, so change all 'vesion1.5' to 'vesrion1.8' or other version that you have installed.
• after tag description put property name = "classpath" value="./;./javassist.jar"/> <property name = "src_util" value="./mindview/util"/> <property name = "src_simple" value="./mindview/simple"/> <property name = "src_atunit" value="./mindview/atunit"/> <property name = "destdir" value="bin"/> Then we make targets that will complile util simple or atunit automatically
• Change tag available <available classname="javassist.bytecode.ClassFile" classpath="${classpath}" property="javassist" />
  Now classpath of available = property named 'classpath'. Classpath is the path where java compiler looks for .class files because some of your .java files want them by having import statement. There won't be error message "You must install the Javassist library " any more
• Create targets for compiling util simple and so on See the following link with code Code with targets
  You can modify exists targets not to write all the code.
• at the top of build.xml file change default="simple"
• open cmd, then cd c:\eckel\net , then ant -simple or just ant (simple will run as default)
  Please write if you will have some problems. Possibly i forgot mention about something.
• Go to Intellij Idea, press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S
• Press +,
• Library or directories
• choose your c:\eckel\net\bin
  5.now you can use import statement for all classes that exist in net.mindview
  6.you can make the same with other dirs.

If you wish to you skip the entire Ant build process, I have converted the project to a Maven project (over JDK8), which you can simply import into your Eclipse workspace.

https://github.com/gauravojha/tij4-maven

Thanks to @Sergey Oliv's example. In addition, I needed to provide uncompiled javaassist package with all java files in the 'net' folder too. The .jar wouldn't work by itself.

I must say, this was a lot of work to get going.