Scala Plugin for NetBeans - Rewrite in Scala #4: How to Use It to Develop Scala Itself

I begin to patch Scala's new designed compiler interface for IDE to get it work better (with NetBeans, and, other IDEs). I know lamp term may use Eclipse as their IDE to develop Scala itself, but I'm using new written NetBeans plugin. Here's a short tutorial of how to use NetBeans Scala plugin to work with Scala itself

Build Scala-2.8.0 snapshot

First and least, svn check out Scala's trunk source code:

cd ~/myprjs/scala/scala
svn co http://lampsvn.epfl.ch/svn-repos/scala/scala/trunk

Then, make sure your $JAVA_HOME is pointed to a JDK 1.5 instead of 1.6, and clear $SCALA_HOME. "ant dist" to build a fresh Scala distribution, which is located at ~myprjs/scala/scala/dist/latest

# As for Mac OS X
JAVA_HOME_BAK=$JAVA_HOME
export JAVA_HOME=/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.5.0/Home
export SCALA_HOME=
ant dist
export JAVA_HOME=$JAVA_HOME_BAK
export SCALA_HOME=~myprjs/scala/scala/dist/latest

Install latest NetBeans and Scala plugin

Download latest NetBeans nightly built from ​http://bits.netbeans.org/download/trunk/nightly/latest, the minimal pack "Java SE" is enough.

Run NetBeans, get latest Scala plugin via: [Preference/Option?] -> [Plugins] -> [Available Plugins], find "Scala Kit" in the list and choose it,following the instructions to get it installed, restart NetBeans.

Create NetBeans project by importing existing sources

Create project for Scala's trunk sources. Note: each folder under "src" should be considered as standalone folder, for example, "compiler", it's better to create standalone project for each these folder, I created two, one for "compiler",another for "library".

[File] -> [New Project] -> [Scala] -> [Scala Project with Existing Sources]

Click [Next], input project name that you like Note: you can input an existed ant build script file name in "Build Script Name". Or, modify the auto-created one later, it's a plain ant build xml file.

Click [Next], add source folder:

Click [Next] again, you can see the sources that will be included in this project, then click [Finish]

Now, Scala's compiler has been imported as a NetBeans freeform project, it is an old plain ant project. You can create another one for Scala's library.

How to debug into Scala's compiler, library source?

If you have a project that want to debug into Scala's compiler, library sources, you could do when in debugging:

In debugging, open debugging source windows via: [Windows] -> [Debugging] -> [Sources]. Go through the listed source jars, find ".../scala-compiler.jar" and ".../scala-library.jar", check them.