Building an Opensource project...newb question.

[JavaNewb]

First of all, apologies in advance for this newbie question...

I'm a fairly seasoned C++ programmer who is new to Java, I recently
downloaded the source for an Opensource application which was of
interest. By doing this I opened a large, and mildly frustrating can
of worms!

I've been trying for a few days now to figure out how to build the
project from the source, I have been unable to find the equivalent of
a Visual Studio workspace in the source that I downloaded.

In the root directory there are the following files:

..classpath (Not a filetype, thats the actual filename)
..project (Not a filetype, thats the actual filename)
..jardesc
..MF

There's also sub-directories that contain all the source, .java files.

Is there anyway I can tell what IDE I should be opening this project
in, I haven't been able to find an app that will read the .project
file. I thought it might be an Eclipse project, but that doesn't seem
to do it either.

ANY help (or pity) would be greatfully recieved!!! Many thanks in
advance for any help, advice, or flames.

PS: If it's helpful the .project files contents are included below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<projectDescription>
<name>INT</name>
<comment></comment>
<projects>
</projects>
<buildSpec>
<buildCommand>
<name>org.antlr.eclipse.core.antlrbuilder</name>
<arguments>
</arguments>
</buildCommand>
<buildCommand>
<name>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javabuilder</name>
<arguments>
</arguments>
</buildCommand>
</buildSpec>
<natures>
<nature>org.eclipse.jem.workbench.JavaEMFNature</nature>
<nature>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature</nature>
<nature>org.eclipse.jem.beaninfo.BeanInfoNature</nature>
<nature>org.antlr.eclipse.core.antlrnature</nature>
</natures>
</projectDescription>

 

[Paul Lutus]

First of all, apologies in advance for this newbie question...

I'm a fairly seasoned C++ programmer who is new to Java, I recently
downloaded the source for an Opensource application which was of
interest. By doing this I opened a large, and mildly frustrating can
of worms!

I've been trying for a few days now to figure out how to build the
project from the source, I have been unable to find the equivalent of
a Visual Studio workspace in the source that I downloaded.

Visual Studio? That isn't even Java as the term is commonly understood.

In the root directory there are the following files:

.classpath (Not a filetype, thats the actual filename)
.project (Not a filetype, thats the actual filename)
.jardesc
.MF

Those are normal file names for files that are meant to remain hidden unless
special efforts are made.

There's also sub-directories that contain all the source, .java files.

Is there anyway I can tell what IDE I should be opening this project
in,

$ grep -i "eclipse" .project && echo "Eclipse is likely the IDE."

I haven't been able to find an app that will read the .project
file. I thought it might be an Eclipse project, but that doesn't seem
to do it either.

"That doesn't seem to do it either"? Tell us what you did, with what
software, after typing what shell commands, and with what results.

 

[Paul H. van Rossem]

First of all, apologies in advance for this newbie question...

I'm a fairly seasoned C++ programmer who is new to Java, I recently
downloaded the source for an Opensource application which was of
interest. By doing this I opened a large, and mildly frustrating can
of worms!

I've been trying for a few days now to figure out how to build the
project from the source, I have been unable to find the equivalent of
a Visual Studio workspace in the source that I downloaded.

In the root directory there are the following files:

.classpath (Not a filetype, thats the actual filename)
.project (Not a filetype, thats the actual filename)
.jardesc
.MF

There's also sub-directories that contain all the source, .java files.

Is there anyway I can tell what IDE I should be opening this project
in, I haven't been able to find an app that will read the .project
file. I thought it might be an Eclipse project, but that doesn't seem
to do it either.

ANY help (or pity) would be greatfully recieved!!! Many thanks in
advance for any help, advice, or flames.

PS: If it's helpful the .project files contents are included below:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<projectDescription>
<name>INT</name>
<comment></comment>
<projects>
</projects>
<buildSpec>
<buildCommand>
<name>org.antlr.eclipse.core.antlrbuilder</name>
<arguments>
</arguments>
</buildCommand>
<buildCommand>
<name>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javabuilder</name>
<arguments>
</arguments>
</buildCommand>
</buildSpec>
<natures>
<nature>org.eclipse.jem.workbench.JavaEMFNature</nature>
<nature>org.eclipse.jdt.core.javanature</nature>
<nature>org.eclipse.jem.beaninfo.BeanInfoNature</nature>
<nature>org.antlr.eclipse.core.antlrnature</nature>
</natures>
</projectDescription>

This very much looks like Eclipse to me.
Maybe you did something wrong? Or note that Eclipse has no obvious way
to open an imported project (at least I never found it...).
You could try to create an empty project with Eclipse and then replace
the files with what you got. Then restart Eclipse on the now
not-so-empty project. This is awkward, but it worked for me.
Good luck, Paul.

 

[JavaNewb]

Many thanks for your help Paul, I'll give that a try and let you know how I get on.

Thanks again.

 

[Lasse Reichstein Nielsen]

This very much looks like Eclipse to me.

Me too.

Maybe you did something wrong? Or note that Eclipse has no obvious way
to open an imported project (at least I never found it...).

Use:
File > Import > Existing project into Workspace
Then browse to the directory containing the ".project" file.

/L