https://blog.roku.com/developer/2016/04 … se-plugin/ is an April announcement of a Roku plugin for Eclipse, a Java-based IDE. This post gave clear instructions for installing Java, Eclipse, and the plugin, but then only showed some screen shots. The tutorial appears to have stopped at this point. Eclipse doesn’t seem self-explanatory, at least for use with Roku. I know it’s supposed to edit BrightScript, makefiles, and manifests, and upload to the Roku automatically. But without instructions, I’m having trouble. All I can really get is error messages. There seems to be very little help on the Web, or here on this forum.
I don’t mind learning the more “manual” methods of Roku development (I can already package up .zip files, and side load zips and pkgs successfully), but I’m reluctant to scuttle Eclipse before really giving it a try, and it promises to speed up development. Can anyone point me to instructions or tutorials on Eclipse as used in Roku development?
Said post ass-umes you are coming to Roku development from Eclipse background and Eclipse is your bread-and-butter^.
For me, i found the Eclipse plugin features as appropriate as using “Dragon Dictate” app for development. I mean, maybe Dragon can transcribe faster than i can type (doubtful) - but typing speed is never my issue as developer! It’s never the case saying “gosh, i will be so much more productive if i could type faster!”… software development is just not that kind of job.
Ditto with teh plugin - the questions it answers are not ones that are being asked - while shirking the important ones. Basically what it does it answer things which are obvious/trivial to implement, like “how do i start from some template code?” (fixing a non-existent problem - well duh, unzip and copy an example!) or “how do i create localization resource subdirectories” (considering >90% of all users are English-speakers, not to mention “right click > New Folder > rename” magic). The elephant in the room though? Debugging! No way to set breakpoints, step through and explore variable stack.
In addition, Roku plugin seems to regularly break with Eclipse updates, demands particular versions of Java and Eclipse, is a RAM/CPU hog… thus i consider it belonging to the set of problems and not solutions (i.e. “i’ve got 99 problems… Oh i know, i’ll use Eclipse! … now i have 100 problems”). To minimize my problems, currently I just use a few lines of deployment script i wrote myself and a generic programmer’s editor like TextWrangler (on Mac) with VB Script highlighting.
(^) Highly questionable. I remember a recent meetup, Traganos was building momentum “show of hands, how many of you use and love Eclipse?” - a paltry few hands go up - “Well anyway, i have great news for you - we have improved our plugin and added blah-de-blah (something minor, like scenography hints)!”. No excited cheers were heard. I liked how he polls the audience though - hope received feedback wakes up somebody at the wheel.
Gosh, so far it sounds like Eclipse is only worth struggling with if one is already using it. While I could probably get used to some IDEs (like PHPStorm, which is wonderful but expensive), I don’t see anything about Eclipse that I like. If I only wanted syntax color, which seems their big claim to fame in the post, I can get that from lots of tools (starting with Emacs). Oh, well.
It all depends upon what you are going to do. Eclipse is an integrated development environment. You have everything you need in one nice package. With the introduction of Scene Graph, ROKU development has become more intricate. For example, a task node runs on its own thread. Each node requires its own telnet console to debug. These can be opened in tabs and docked anywhere you like. You have an outliner that allows you to quickly find functions that you need to work with in a brs file. You can have multiple projects open, such as code libraries you may have created. There are plugins for XML and JSON. You can modify and quickly side load to your box. You have an integrated debugger, you can associate your image files and other files to any editor and just click on the file in the project manager to open and edit. The more complex your projects are the more you will appreciate the plugin. Stick with it you will come to appreciate it
“NewManLiving” wrote:
… You have an integrated debugger,
Wait, wait… say what now?!
[upload|yWztIM1/Mq1/6p0wuH/1ww==]
PS. come to think of it, there appears to be some resemblance between Mr.Bean and my facial interface. Hmm. Who extends/implements what, i wonder… :mrgreen:
NewManLiving, Well, you certainly make it sound wonderful. But without good instructions, or tutorials, it is useless. How did you learn it when you first downloaded it?
This will give you a general overview. There are some frustrating quirks, the new plugin keeps loosing the IP address of the box so you may have to retype it in when you export to the box, at least on ROKU 4. There still is no support for the new operators ( such as l_variable++ ) so you will get a syntax error which you cannot override as far as I can tell. I have always been a 2D API programmer so my projects are extremely code intensive, therefore Eclipse is a must-have. Most of it is intuitive or you can ask questions here. For the most part the default layout is what you would generally work with. Create a project, open it, create source files, click and open them. Always have to have at least one file open to export, as I said, you have to learn to deal with the minor quirks. File export to side-load your project or create a package, open consoles in window show view menu. Not really that much to learn, you’ll see, like anything else its daunting at first. I used to think JDeveloper was daunting, now its so simple. Started doing fire tv and Apple TV as well, it all looks complex until you do it a few times, then there is not much to it. If you are still in the JAVA perspective just go to window perspective, open perspective, other and select brightscript. This will load the default layout
“NewManLiving” wrote:
… You have an integrated debugger,
Wait, wait… say what now?!
[upload|yWztIM1/Mq1/6p0wuH/1ww==]
PS. come to think of it, there appears to be some resemblance between Mr.Bean and my facial interface. Hmm. Who extends/implements what, i wonder… :mrgreen:
NewManLiving, I must admit to understanding very little of your description. What is “perspective”? I played around and got an “Open Perspective” dialog box, but it contains no “windows” perspective (my OS is Windows). Anything can be learned, but I’m old enough (and retired), so I’m not inclined to learn by experimentation, or by asking someone hundreds of questions. I simply don’t have that kind of time available, nor do I deserve to struggle that much to learn a new system. Besides, I believe that any software that is really good will have good documentation. This one doesn’t seem to.
Sounds like you have given up already. Nothing is that easy. The new Scene Graph will give you some brain fog as well. I’m 62 workout everyday and still love to learn new things. Well you are almost there: when you get to the open perspective then select other , then select brightscript from the list box. I believe that part is in the docs that I referenced
“David21” wrote:
… I’m old enough (and retired), so I’m not inclined to learn by experimentation, or by asking someone hundreds of questions. I simply don’t have that kind of time available, nor do I deserve to struggle that much to learn a new system. Besides, I believe that any software that is really good will have good documentation. This one doesn’t seem to.
I’m with EnTerr, I use Text Wrangler. Atom seems like a real good choice too.
The Roku SDK itself will require you to ask questions. Maybe not hundreds, but even the most experienced people ( NML neglected to mention decades of programming experience) will be stumped by things occasionally. Lots of people here are happy to help, but you do have to be willing to ask ( I dislike asking - I got over it). Expecting everything to be written down in a convenient place would be… overly optimistic. So, unless you know you’re going big, maybe the SDK will be enough to do without also dealing with Eclipse.
When I started out developing for Roku, I used Notepad++ with a VBScript syntax highlighter. As I developed more and more, project management became a necessity, and I migrated to Eclipse. Now it’s a core component of my productivity, though admittedly I don’t use some of the hyped features (e.g., the deployment tool). If you have no aspirations to do a lot of Roku development, and are instead just picking it up as a hobby, then it may be easier for you to go the simpler route. If there’s another IDE that you’re more comfortable with, there’s a chance you may be able to adapt it to work for you, either by telling it you’re working with VBScript, or using some of the non-Roku developed add-ins (e.g., the Visual Studio extension or the Atom BrightScript language package).
Did I say the operators were faster? Less typing-that’s about it. The point was that the plugin generally lags behind the technology. As far as eclipse vs any other environment that is a matter of preference. I have used it from the start so for me it’s the best we have. On the other hand I get the impression that you don’t like or use it so your critique of it cannot be based upon actual use just your opinion.
I fully migrated to use Atom with the Brightscript language package and the Roku deployment package, and I also migrated to use the “PurpleBug” to debug.
“NewManLiving” wrote:
The point was that the plugin generally lags behind the technology.Right… it is lame. Strange to find ourself in agreement!
The difference between us two seems to be, you treat it like a human with disabilities and granting it accommodations under ADA.
Where i consider it pet at best and contemplate if sometimes euthanasia is better, to spare the suffering?
As far as eclipse vs any other environment that is a matter of preference. I have used it from the start so for me it’s the best we have. On the other hand I get the impression that you don’t like or use it so your critique of it cannot be based upon actual use just your opinion.i have used Eclipse before for java/Android, not impressed. Feels like a consolation price for those (Linux?) who cannot use Visual Studio or XCode. Come to think of it, around here i know only two fans of the Eclipse plugin and one of them got screwed recently by said plugin.
“marcelo.cabral” wrote:
I fully migrated to use Atom with the Brightscript language package and the Roku deployment package, and I also migrated to use the “PurpleBug” to debug.
Way lighter than Eclipse.Aha! Recently i heard the same from somebody else.
Here is the irony though: I have tried Atom and at 250MB+ it’s far from “light”. What does it say if developing with Atom is “way lighter” than Eclipsing?!
“EnTerr” wrote:
I have tried Atom and at 250MB+ it’s far from “light”. What does it say if developing with Atom is “way lighter” than Eclipsing?!
When I had a small disk and a small ram, I thought of “heavy” in terms of the weight of my tools on my desk. Now that I have a large disk and a large ram, I think of “heavy” in terms of the weight of the task on my brain. Currently, Eclipse weighs about 7,000 exaneurons, compared to Atom’s 15 exaneurons.
