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Getting External annotations to work [message #1832746]

Thu, 24 September 2020 10:24

Christian Pontesegger

Messages: 220
Registered: July 2009
Location: Graz, Austria

Senior Member

Hi,

I am scratching my head how to get external annotations to work in the IDE.
I have got this in my .classpath:

	<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.jdt.launching.JRE_CONTAINER/org.eclipse.jdt.internal.debug.ui.launcher.StandardVMType/JavaSE-1.8">
		<attributes>
			<attribute name="annotationpath" value="/org.eclipse.skills.releng.nullanalysis/eea"/>
		</attributes>
	</classpathentry>
	<classpathentry kind="con" path="org.eclipse.pde.core.requiredPlugins">
		<attributes>
			<attribute name="annotationpath" value="/home/christian/eea"/>
		</attributes>
	</classpathentry>

first one links to an existing workspace project, second one to a file system folder.

On linux I do not see an "Annotate" context menu when I try to augment a parameter in the defining class. This is the same on 2020-06 and 2020-09.

On windows I do at least see the Annotate context menu on 2020-06, but when selecting I just hear the error ping from windows, but nothing happens. Also there are no entries in the .log file.

Any recommendations how to get this working?

thanks
Christian

With eclipse 2020-06 I do see the "annotate" context menu entry

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Re: Getting External annotations to work [message #1832836 is a reply to message #1832746]

Sat, 26 September 2020 07:31

Ed Willink

Messages: 7096
Registered: July 2009

Senior Member

Hi

I doubt that the file system path option is available.

I've certainly found that it can all go confusingly dead. Sorry I forget the magic trick. Perhaps it was a build.properties mention. Perhaps a regenerate .classpath option.

But the bottom line is that EEA does not work since the necessary PDE integration has not been implemented. EEA only works for self-contained Java developers, not for shared plugin developers.

Two broken use cases:
a) once your EEAs are packaged in an installed plugin, no one can use them.
b) project-group A's EEAs cannot re-use proj-group B's EEAs

Since JDT no longer has any active committer who is enthusiastic about @NonNull, I am resigned to phasing all the EEAs out of my code. I recommend that you avoid the future elimination cost. The basic bugs in @NonNull refactoring etc can be lived with and hopefully won't get worse. Eclipse EEA is never going to work. Maybe Java 42 will mandate support.

Regards

Ed Willink

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