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Summary

an IBM eclipse plugin for squirrel development

SQDev is currently under development but is already a fully functional development environment.

Features

• Editor
• Syntax highlighting
• Syntax error detection
• Remote debugger (The debugging portion of SQDev requires SQDbg library included in your application.)
• variables view
• watches
• call stack
• breakpoints
• Application launcher
• Custom eclipse perspective
• Custom eclipse project
• Generate reference documentation from source code using "SquirrelDoc" conventions (Javadoc essentially).
• Integrates Squirrel's reference manual into eclipse (work in progress)

Installation

Requirements

SQDev requires the following to install and run:

1. A Java JRE (or SDK) 1.5 or greater. You can get Java here: http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp
2. Eclipse SDK 3.2 or greater. You can get Eclipse here: http://www.eclipse.org

Installing SQDev

1. In Eclipse, select Help => Software Update => Find and Install...
2. Select "Search for new features to install"
3. Select "New Remote Site" and enter the following: Name: SQDev Update Site, URL: http://sqdev.sf.net/update/
4. Make sure the new update site is checked. (Note: You might need to uncheck "Ignore features not applicable to this environment" to make it work)
5. Click "Finish" and follow the prompts.
6. When finished, please restart the workbench when asked.
7. (Optional) Enable Syntax Checking (disabled by default), see below.

Upgrading SQDev (Once installed)

1. In Eclipse, select Help => Software Update => Find and Install...
2. Select "Search for updates of the currently installed features."
3. If updates are found, it will prompt to install them.

Note

If you have already installed version 1.1.2 or earlier, please follow the install instructions here to "install" it again, because the auto-update was broken. Version 1.1.3 and up have this fixed so that auto-update should work as expected.

Create a project

• From the Eclipse main menu File/New/Project
• Select Squirrel project

Note

The project root doesn't have to be necessarily in your workspace directory. (Useful if you have an existing source code base you're working with.)

Note

The project directory will be the root of your debugging session. This means that all the files that you wish to debug must be under this directory. Otherwise the debugger wont be able to locate your files.

Squirrel perspective

To enable the squirrel perspective form the main eclipse menu Window/Open Perspective/Others select Squirrel

Automatic syntax checking

SQDev has two forms of syntax checking. One is internal to SQDev and attempts to identify common structure errors. The other is by executing an external Squirrel binary and capturing any errors it detects. Using both is recommended, as there are currently some errors only detected in one or the other (but both make your code better!).

SQDev's editor supports automatic syntax checking.

Every time a '.nut file is saved sqdev will invoke sq.exe and compile the file.

1. If any syntax error is present, an icon will be placed at the line that caused the error.
2. a marker is also added in eclipse's Problems view(Window/Show View/Other/ + Basic/Problems)

To enable (external) automatic syntax checking.

• From the main eclipse menu Window/Preferences
• In the tree select Squirrel
• Check enable syntax checking
• Set the location of your sq.exe (version 2.0.5 or higher)

Debugger

To debug your project.

• From eclipse's main menu Run/Debug
• Select Squirrel Application
• Press the New button
• The following tab will appear

Target Address

IP address of the application(disables if localhost)

Port

IP port of the application

Localhost

if true the debugger ignores the IP Address and always connect to the local machine

Autorun Interpreter

if checked the debugger will run the executable specified in Interpreter

Interpreter

the application that has to be debugged

Working Directory

working directory of the application

Command Line Options

command line parameters passed to the application at startup

Suspend on startup

suspends the application on the first squirrel line that gets executed

Default debugger setting

It is possible to set defaults for you debugger configuration.

• from eclipse's main menu Window/Preferences
• select Squirrel/Debug

How to use the debugger

Launch

Launch you application by pressing the debug button in the toolbar(the one with the green bug icon)

Switch to debug perspective, by pressing the debug button on the perspective toolbar(number 1 in the image)

Call stack

You can navigate the call stack by selecting a function in the Debug View(number 2 in the image)

Breakpoints

To add a breakpoint double click on the gray left border of the editor(see number 4 in the image)

To remove it, double click again on the breakpoint icon

To jump on a breakpoint select the breakpoint in the breakpoint view(see number 5 in the image)

Errors

The debugger will automatically jump to the file location if a unhandled exception occurs

Variables

Call stack's variables are displayed in the variable view(number 3 in the image)

Watches

Left click on the Expression view and select "Add Squirrel Watch Expression"(number 6 in the image)

The expression will be evaluated on a breakpoint or on the next step

Stepping

After the application has been suspended by a breakpoint or by pressing the pause button in the debug view(number 2 in the image):

• F5 step into
• F6 step over
• F7 step return
• F8 resume

Note that you must be in debug perspective

Terminate the application

You can terminate the application by pressing the stop button in the debug view(number 2 in the image)

Suspend the application

You can suspend the application by pressing the suspend button in the debug view(number 2 in the image)