Using an IDE to work on the Java library

[John Rose]

It's extra difficult if you try to develop *part* of a module.
As a JDK developer (java.lang.invoke!) I made a concerted
effort in IDEA to get it to work and found several bugs.
I logged them here with Jetbrains, starting here and
continuing to linked issues:

  support {{--patch-module}} option as fix for "package exists in another module" error in Java 9
  https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-180982

One thing that you might find useful is the sample project
I posted with the bug, which shows my attempt to do incremental
development in the java.base module:

  https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/_persistent/java-base-hack.zip?file=74-459648&c=true

It sort of works, and will work better as folks hammer on it.

See also:
  https://youtrack.jetbrains.com/issue/IDEA-180981
  https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8190672

HTH
— John

On Jun 5, 2017, at 9:30 AM, Andrew Haley <aph at redhat.com> wrote:
> 
> Sorry for what must seem like a newbie question...
> 
> I've done almost all of my work on HotSpot, and have very little
> experience trying to use an IDE to work on the Java library.  Eclipse
> is fine when working on libraries outdie the JDK itself, but seems to
> want to look inside src.zip for its sources when debugging.  It would
> be really nice to be able to see (and edit) the real Java source files
> in jdk/java.base/.
> 
> I suppose there must be some way to create a Project for an IDE, so
> that debugging the standard library is easy.  Is there some advice
> around somewhere?  What do people do?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> -- 
> Andrew Haley
> Java Platform Lead Engineer
> Red Hat UK Ltd. <https://www.redhat.com>
> EAC8 43EB D3EF DB98 CC77 2FAD A5CD 6035 332F A671