Hexy extension docs

[arthurhjorth]

Hi guys. I'm about to build a simple Dropbox extension that allows you to upload stuff from NetLogo to your dropbox (for data collection.)

I want/need to build it for hexy. We've been talking about providing better support for extension-authoring for a long time. Since we'll need to create new templates, maybe we can take the opportunity to make it better? A step-by-step procedure, and/or a template for a commonly used, free IDE. Everything in profoundly simple terms.

I'm MORE than happy to work on this. Public APIs + the NetLogo extension API is really powerful, so let's help people (and me!) make that happen. 👍

[arthurhjorth]

By the way, the last time @mrerrormessage and I talked about it, I think we more or less agreed that writing a good template for a widely used, OS/free, light weight, cross-platform IDE would be the way to go. I suggested IntelliJ, just because that seems to be what those of us who aren't using Vim are using. Does that sound like a reasonable approach?

[mrerrormessage]

@arthurhjorth I've just pushed to the hexy branch and this extension is building against the latest version of hexy and can be updated to build against future versions very simply by adjusting the netLogoVersion setting in the build.sbt file.

I've spent about the last 20 minutes investigating IntelliJ and I can't figure out how to get it to export the project as a template for use by other users. I can save it locally and use it locally, but it doesn't seem to want to let me export it around. Another difficulty with IntelliJ is that users would have to obtain the NetLogo jar for it to work. We could give them download instructions (always a pain to follow) or include it in some git repository they could clone (shame on us for checking jars into source control). I haven't yet dug into Eclipse, but I'm guessing it would be easier to make a project template.

I've pushed what I found up to a branch (wip-intellij-template) and you're welcome to poke around.

I haven't yet updated the activator template for hexy, but I still think activator is a really attractive option, and will be even better once we get the it updated with the latest NetLogo-Extension-Plugin. Instructions for using activator can be found here.

[mrerrormessage]

Just wanted to circle back a bit. I think this can be done in IntelliJ, but will require writing a plugin. It also seems that doing it for Eclipse will require writing a plugin. While I'm open to doing this, I think it's important to understand that any tooling we build for these IDEs will come at the cost of continued support and maintenance. For example, the plugin may need to be rebuilt to accommodate changes to project API's as new versions are released. I think this topic may be important enough to discuss at one of our devel meetings with Uri (and certainly important enough to talk about at our devel-only meeting this Wednesday).

[arthurhjorth]

Just adding things here for documentation down the line:

"Launch the UI"

should be,

"Unzip it, open the activator-dist- folder, open the /bin folder, and double-click Activator. If it asks you to open it, just say yes. The first time, Activator will install a bunch of stuff on your hard drive. Don't panic."

" then search for netlogo-extension in the list of templates."

Select "Seeds" under templates, and find the one called "NetLogo Extension Build", then click "Create App".

[arthurhjorth]

After I create the App in Activator, I open it but get this error message in "Build":

Examining project/play.sbt
Examining project/plugins.sbt
Examining project/play-fork-run.sbt
Does not appear to be a Play project
The global sbt directory is now versioned and is located at /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  You are seeing this warning because there is global configuration in /Users/hah661/.sbt but not in /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  The global sbt directory may be changed via the sbt.global.base system property.
Read from stdout: Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Read from stdout: error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
Read from stdout: (bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
(bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
Read from stdout: one error found
one error found
Read from stdout: (compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
(compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
Total time: 1 s, completed Apr 13, 2016 1:23:57 PM
The global sbt directory is now versioned and is located at /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  You are seeing this warning because there is global configuration in /Users/hah661/.sbt but not in /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  The global sbt directory may be changed via the sbt.global.base system property.
Read from stdout: Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Read from stdout: error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
Read from stdout: (bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
(bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
Read from stdout: one error found
one error found
Read from stdout: (compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
(compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
Total time: 1 s, completed Apr 13, 2016 1:23:58 PM
Examining project/play.sbt
Examining project/plugins.sbt
Examining project/play-fork-run.sbt
Does not appear to be a Play project
Lost or failed sbt connection: Connection closed
The global sbt directory is now versioned and is located at /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  You are seeing this warning because there is global configuration in /Users/hah661/.sbt but not in /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  The global sbt directory may be changed via the sbt.global.base system property.
Loading project definition from /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/project
The global sbt directory is now versioned and is located at /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  You are seeing this warning because there is global configuration in /Users/hah661/.sbt but not in /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  The global sbt directory may be changed via the sbt.global.base system property.
Set current project to netlogo-extension (in build file:/Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/)
Reapplying settings...
Set current project to netlogo-extension (in build file:/Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/)
The global sbt directory is now versioned and is located at /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  You are seeing this warning because there is global configuration in /Users/hah661/.sbt but not in /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  The global sbt directory may be changed via the sbt.global.base system property.
Read from stdout: Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Read from stdout: error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
Read from stdout: (bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
(bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
Read from stdout: one error found
one error found
Read from stdout: (compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
(compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
Total time: 2 s, completed Apr 13, 2016 1:24:10 PM
The global sbt directory is now versioned and is located at /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  You are seeing this warning because there is global configuration in /Users/hah661/.sbt but not in /Users/hah661/.sbt/0.13.
  The global sbt directory may be changed via the sbt.global.base system property.
Read from stdout: Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Compiling 1 Scala source to /Users/hah661/netlogo-extension/target/scala-2.9.3/classes...
Read from stdout: error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
Read from stdout: (bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
error while loading CharSequence, class file '/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.8.0_77.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/rt.jar(java/lang/CharSequence.class)' is broken
(bad constant pool tag 18 at byte 10)
Read from stdout: one error found
one error found
Read from stdout: (compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
(compile:compileIncremental) Compilation failed
Total time: 1 s, completed Apr 13, 2016 1:24:10 PM

[mrerrormessage]

That error is due to running in Java 8 when activator needs to be run in Java 6 to compile extensions. This will be resolved in hexy (I should merge that branch in soon).

[arthurhjorth]

Ooh, this is what you were referring to when you said to run it in Java 6. I'll try that, thanks.

[arthurhjorth]

Hm, not sure how I can make it work. I'll try to talk with Bryan about it later, thanks.