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EclipseMembersSortOrder

An attempt at customizing Eclipse's "Members Sort Order".

The Eclipse cleanup facility can sort the members of a class. The sort order is controlled by (Mac OS X) Preferences -> Java -> Appearance -> Sort Order.

The sort order is:

• Types
• Static Fields
• Static Initializers
• Static Methods
• Fields
• Initializers
• Constructors
• Methods

There is a checkbox for "Sort Members in same category by visibility" which has the following order:

• Public
• Private
• Protected
• Default

Unfortunately, the Ptolemy II coding standard at http://ptolemy.eecs.berkeley.edu/ptolemyII/ptIIlatest/ptII/doc/coding/style.htm has a different order. Arguably, the Ptolemy coding standard should change, but perhaps it is possible to change the order in Eclipse. The Ptolemy order is:

The primary difference between the two classifications is that the Ptolemy style has all the public fieldds and methods first, then the protected methods and fields and then the private methods and fields. Types, Statics and Initializers are not specified. So, the order for Ptolemy might be:

• Constructors
• Public variables - Note that Public variables are before Public Methods because for actors, Public variables includes ports and parameters.
• Public methods
• Protected methods
• Protected variables
• Private methods
• Private variables

Types (inner classes) and Statics would probably go in the appropriate visibility section:

• Public constructors
• Public statics - statics should be as early as possible because order matters
• Public variables
• Public methods
• Public Types (inner classes)
• Protected constructors
• Protected methods
• Protected types (inner classes)
• Protected statics
• Protected variables
• Private constructors
• Private statics
• Private methods
• Private variables

The Problem Statement

Modify the sort order so that we can specify the visibility of the members.

Current status

Eclipse bugs

• Try searching with: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/buglist.cgi?quicksearch=sort+members
• https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=218705 - Bug 218705 - [sort members] distinguish or permit member kind exclusion
• https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=218542 - Bug 218542 - [clean up] sort members sorts fields by visibility even if field sorting is disabled
  • Has a patch, it looks like the code is in /cvsroot/eclipse/org.eclipse.jdt.ui/core extension/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/corext/codemanipulation/SortMembersOperation
• Not really relevant:
  • https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=276630 - Bug 276630 - [sort members] Provide more control over sorting order
  • https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=276678 - Bug 276678 - [sort members] ordering methods should not use fully qualified argument type
• http://www.bergner.se/protocols - plugin that allows sorting by groups
• Plug-in Spy http://www.vogella.de/articles/EclipseCodeAccess/article.html#pluginspy says to Alt-Shift-Fn-F1 to view info about a dialog. For the "Members Sort Order Window", we get:
• Active Page Class: MemberOrderPreferencesPage
• plugin: org.eclipse.jdt.ui 3.5.1.r351_v20090821-0800
• The active help context identifiers:
  • org.eclipse.ui.preference_dialog_context
  • org.eclipse.jdt.ui.sort_order_preference_page_context

Building Eclipse under Mac OS X

1. Go to http://update.eclipse.org/downloads/
2. Find the release in which you are interested. In my case, I wanted 3.5.1, so I clicked on 3.5.1 under "Latest Released"
3. Click on "access the Source Builds page"
4. Instructions for building 3.5.1 are at http://wiki.eclipse.org/Platform-releng-sourcebuild35#Supported_Platforms
5. Create a new directory
   mkdir eclipse3.5.1

   [$[Get Code]]
6. Download the "Source Build (Source fetched via CVS) and unzip. I had problems with the 3.5.1 "Source Build (Source in .zip)", see below
   cd eclipse3.5.1
   unzip ~/Downloads/eclipse-sourceBuild-srcFetch-3.5.1.zip

   [$[Get Code]]
7. Download eclipse-SDK-3.5.1-macosx-carbon.tar.gz into the eclipse3.5.1/buildScripts directory

The build script (run in the step after the next step)will untar this file if the eclipse/ directory does not exist.

1. Edit buildScripts/org.eclipse.releng.eclipsebuilder/eclipse/buildConfigs/sdk/srcBuild/build.properties
   J2SE-1.5=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/classes.jar:/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/jsse.jar:/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/jce.jar
   J2SE-1.4=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/classes.jar:/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/jsse.jar:/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/jce.jar
   CDC-1.0/Foundation-1.0=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/classes.jar
   CDC-1.1/Foundation-1.1=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/classes.jar
   OSGi/Minimum-1.2=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Classes/classes.jar
   JavaSE-1.6=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Classes/classes.jar:/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Classes/jsse.jar:/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.6/Classes/jce.jar
   java15-home=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Home
   

   [$[Get Code]]
2. Run build, which will likely fail:
   export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5/Home
   export CVS_RSH=ssh
   ./build -os macosx -ws cocoa -arch x86

   [$[Get Code]]
3. In src/maps/org.eclipse.releng/maps/orbit.map, replace fullmoon.ottawa.ibm.com with www.eclipse.org/external (see below for details)
4. Run the build command
   ./build -os macosx -ws cocoa -arch x86

   [$[Get Code]]

Problems

./build: line 55: [: missing `]'

Problem: During build:

Solution: change

to

Error occurred while transforming repository.

Problem: During build of eclipse-sourceBuild-srcIncluded-3.5.1.zip

Initial Solution: http://old.nabble.com/trouble-building-Eclipse-SDK-3.5.1-from-source-td26715114.html

Real Solution: Don't use eclipse-sourceBuild-srcIncluded-3.5.1.zip, use eclipse-sourceBuild-srcFetch-3.5.1.zip

cvs problem

The problem:

Looks like a problem on the cvs server:

The problem was likely on the Eclipse CVS server. After waiting, the problem went away. One issue is that it seems like even though I downloaded the SDK with source, the build is still using CVS. What if I was connected via a slow connection? The Eclipse3.6M4 org.eclipse.releng.eclipsebuilder/eclipse/buildConfigs/sdk/srcBuild/build.properties mentions skipFetch:

References to win32 and linux

Problem: The eclipse-sourceBuild-srcIncluded-3.5.1.zip build fails because win32 and linux sources are missing

Solution? Try 3.6M4

3.6M4 fails: buildScripts/src/maps/org.eclipse.releng/maps not found

Solution: Try the 3.5.1 again

3.5.1: Can't find org.eclipse.ecf.provider.filetransfer.source_3.0.0.qualifier

Build with ~/Downloads/eclipse-sourceBuild-srcIncluded-3.5.1.zip and build.properties having skipFetch=true

Solution: build 3.5.1 from the "Source Build (Source fetched via CVS)" and replace fullmoon.ottawa.ibm.com with www.eclipse.org/external in src/maps/org.eclipse.releng/maps/orbit.map and rerun build

Real solution: It looks like the jar file is missing?

Could not create feature

Solution: it looks like feature.xml was truncated:

So I removed the org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.source directory and reran build.

Can't find ecf.provider.filetransfer.source_3.0.0 and httpclient.source_3.0.0

Problem:

Solution, unjar the 3.0.1 version of these files, change the manifest and create new versions

Real Solution: It turns out that these messages can be ignored. I suspect that my problem was that CVS_RSH was not set. I've seen the above error messages in the log file of a successful build.

Eclipse files that are involved in the Members Sort Order

org.eclipse.jdt.ui/src/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/corext/codemanipulation/SortMembersOperation.java

Defines the comparator used to sort

org.eclipse.jdt.ui/src/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/ui/preferences/MembersOrderPreferenceCache.java

Defines various constants

org.eclipse.jdt.ui/src/org/eclipse/jdt/internal/ui/preferences/PreferencesMessages.properties

Defines the strings used in the dialog

The plan: Add a bunch of constants to represent the members at a finer level of detail. The visibility option will be ignored. This is a hack.