Semlab : Muri : System : Howto : Forte for Java

• Decent editor with syntax highlighting and autocomplete for Java classes
• Filesystem, package, and JAR (Java Archive) browsers so you can maneuver your way around a bunch of classes
• Class browser so you can easily see a hierarchical view of what's in a class (methods, fields, etc.) other than just looking at the source code as text
• Automatic browsing of the Java API documentation and class libraries (documentation is also searchable)
• GUI, close-to-WYSIWYG editor for GUI components if you are working on something that needs a UI
• Integrated debugger
• Integrated CVS support

Of course all of these features are available separately so if you're already comfortable with the tools you're using, stick with them. If you want to know how to set up Forte, read on.

1. Install Forte.

   Forte's home on the web is http://www.sun.com/forte/ffj/, or you can find the download files on Muri2 in C:\Downloads\Dev tools\Java, as "forte for Java, community edition".

   Before you install Forte, you need to install the JDK (version 1.3 or newer); you'll find the JDK 1.3 in the same directory on Muri2 if you haven't installed it yet. Then, install Forte by running the above installer file.

2. Install Java documentation.

   After installing Forte, you'll want the Java documentation. In the same Java directory on Muri2, I've downloaded the JDK 1.3 documentation as j2sdk-1_3_0-update1-doc.zip; unzip this file (with the option to preserve directory structure) to C:\ which will actually put it into C:\jdk1.3\docs.

3. Fire up Forte and tell it where to find stuff.

   The "stuff" in question at this point is the documentation from step 2, and your source code. Run Forte, and we'll add these to its workspace manager.

   First, run Forte (there should be an icon on the desktop) and find the Explorer window at the left of the screen. Click the Javadoc tab at the bottom, then right-click the "Javadoc" header at the top of the window and choose "Mount directory." Now browse to C:\jdk1.3, highlight the "docs" folder, and click Mount.

   Now for your source code: choose File/Mount Filesystem, and in the resulting dialog box, click the 3rd option "Mount (other file system type)". Make sure it's on CVS, then underneath next to Working Directory, enter the path to your source directory (the one that contains the whole csli hierarchy that you already checked out from CVS). Ignore the rest of the options; the Customize dialog box should let you specify the path to the CVS repository but it's kind of broken and won't let you specify the combination of options we need. Never fear, it will just find it anyway since you've already set up CVS.

   You should now see an entry (if you click the Filesystems tab in the Explorer window) with a little CVS icon and the name of your source directory; if you click the tennis-racket-looking thing to the left, it will fold down and you'll see the "csli" directory. You can keep folding these down to explore deeper and deeper, and you can right-click on each folder (not your source folder, but the csli folder and everything inside it) to get a popup menu with options including a CVS submenu, which will let you do CVS update, commit, and diff (which has a nice graphical view of your changes to the code!), as well as "refresh" and "refresh recursively" options which aren't part of CVS per se but just force Forte to re-update its view of the CVS tree -- similar to "cvs -n update", it will tell you if your files are up-to-date without changing anything.

Some hints:

• javadoc: for Java documentation, click on the Javadoc tab in the Explorer window, then use the tennis rackets to browse through the documentation (under c:\jdk1.3\jre\...\docs). All of the Java class libraries are in the section called "api", organized by package (i.e., for java.lang.String, fold down api, then fold down java, then fold down lang, then find String and double-click it).
• more on javadoc: the above browsing method is great if you already know what you're looking for and just need more info -- for example, you're working with a String and need to know what methods it supports. If you don't know what you're looking for in the first place, try Javadoc Index Search from the Help menu.
• new classes: to create new classes, use File/New, which will present you with a bewildering array of templates. If you want to start from scratch, look under "Classes" and you'll find "Class", "Interface", and others, which will start you out with a generic and empty one of whatever you selected. If I'm not using these it's usually because I want something with a UI, in which case I start under "Swing Forms" and choose JFrame (if I want to create a top-level window) or JPanel (if I want to be embedded inside other UI objects).
• property inspectors: there's a floating "Properties" window which shows any relevant properties of whatever you select; if you want to keep the properties for something visible even when you select something else, right-click it and choose Properties which will open a new Properties window tied to that thing. (I'd say "tied to that object", but that's using "object" in a generic sense, where everything is an object -- which is true, but might confuse you if you thought the only objects were those you declare in your code!)
• browsing: almost anything can be browsed with the Explorer window; you can drill down through directories to files, but it doesn't end there: if a file is a Java class you can expand it to see a list of methods and fields and inner classes, and (if you've opened the GUI form editor) if a class has an associated user interface, you can even keep drilling down right through the hierarchy of interface controls. Try it and see!