Automatically compile any Java class when the file is dropped in a directory - macos

I look at a lot of small Java programs. It would be convenient if I could set up a directory (or directory structure) on my Mac where any time I add a .java file, javac automatically runs and attempts to compile that file. I've briefly looked into Automator actions, but found nothing that fits the bill. Then I got to thinking: on my PC, I would use the .Net FileSystemWatcher class and write the code myself. But before I try that on my Mac with Mono, I want to ask the community for other ideas. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

In JDK6 you can programmatically compile, so you could write your own program to do this, which may be slightly better than doing it in mono.
So you would just have a program that is always running, it looks for either any new files or a file that has been changed since the last check and then just compiles them, and you may want it to pass information to a dashboard window when there are errors, and perhaps some status info so you know it is working.
http://binkley.blogspot.com/2005/09/programmatically-compiling-java-in-jdk.html

If you have all the .java files available at the start, you could write a shell script to compile them all in one run -- in different directories if you need to.
If you explained why you would want this, maybe I/we could be more helpful.

Related

Connecting dots from self-contained Java application to Mac OS installation

I am not a Mac owner and am putting myself through a crash course to get up to speed (e.g., reading "Switching to the Mac"), to give you an indication of my current level of understanding. The access I have to a physical Mac is limited, so I am trying to connect as many dots as possible before my next session with my friend's computer.
I have: a file folder containing all resources needed for a self-contained application written with Java (OpenJDK 11, JavaFX 11). The JLINK tool was successfully used to create this file folder, and it holds all necessary Java libraries as well as the code I wrote for the application. The executable resides in a subfolder: /bin. The program runs perfectly well on the Mac when the executable is run.
I want: something that is easy to download, install and run.
I'm unclear about what needs to be done to get this. The road map seems to have two main steps:
the file folder needs to be converted into something that responds as if it were an application (e.g., a Bundle? or an .app?)
the resulting folder-as-executable can be shipped via either .dmg or .pkg
For the second part, I've researched and found tools such as Packages or create-dmg. It seems to me these tools are pretty straightforward and shouldn't be too difficult to learn to use. (Just have to pick one or the other or something similar.)
For the first part, I'm on shaky conceptual ground. I've found info about Bundles, but no tutorials, walk-throughs or examples. It looks like a key step is understanding how to make a proper Info.plist file, but doing this properly looks tricky. Also, I'm not clear on how the resulting Bundle will become an .app file or if it needs to, or if there is another, more direct way to make my file folder be viewed by the OS as an application.
Some hand-holding or references to tutorials or even assurance that I am on the right track (if that is the case) would be much appreciated. Thanks!
The Java Deployment guide from Oracle relies heavily on ANT, but doesn't cover the case of a self-contained, customized JVM via JLINK well enough for me to decipher. So, I've taken the approach of trying to learn/understand the necessary steps using command-line commands.
While creating a Bundle is certainly an option, there is an easier way.
Step one is to make an .app manually. An answer to this question: "How to make a Mac OS X .app with a shell script?" goes over the basic steps. The Java file system that results from jlinking has a folder /bin in which there is a bash file that runs the program. This file should be moved to the outermost folder, and it should be named the desired name of the application. The bash file itself will have to be edited and "/bin" added to the address in last command so that the executable will be found. In addition, the folder itself will have to be renamed to be the same as the bash file, but with .app added as an extension.
The next thing I wanted to have was a custom icon. The question "Include icon in manually created app bundle" shows how to do this.
For the next step I made use of the program "Packages". I'm a bit confused about where I downloaded this from (there seem to be multiple sites), but here is a link to the manual. This tool allowed me to create a .pkg file that, when executed, installs my .app in the Applications folder. Then I compressing the .pkg file (to .zip) and made it available at a URL for downloading.
I've had a friend do a test download and install, and the program works!
This isn't meant to be a complete tutorial, and there are a few steps more that I want to figure out pertaining to sandboxing and sealing, but I believe this is a reasonable roadmap that can be used for simpler jlinked Java applications for Mac distribution.

How can I completely compile a bash project to be distributed?

I am trying to compile a bash project into a distributable binary. I tried shc, and it worked, except all my source statements were broken. I have numerous source statements to keep the code base cleaner, but they are broken when compiled with shc. How can I compile down my bash project so that instead of having a bunch of .sh files, the end user can just have one single file?
Shc is an obfuscator, not a compiler. At the end of the day, it still invokes /bin/sh or whatever, and feeds it your original script. It has not a slightest idea what your script actually does. If it needs an additional file to source, you have to supply it at an appropriate location.
You may want to investigate things like SHAR. Build anarchive, then compile it with shc if you want.
It sounds like all you're missing is a facility to expand all your source statements. That should be fairly easy to write if your codebase is fairly consistent in its use of those statements: just write a script to expand them inline and away you go.
Alternatively, just put all your scripts into a single Zip file or tarball and tell the user to extract the contents of that one file, or if even that is too much I'm sure you can imagine a way to encode the zipped contents of all the non-main files into a giant comment at the bottom of the main file, and have it extract what it needs before proceeding.
Or, you know, use the appropriate installer for your system. Build an RPM for RHEL or a Debian package or a Windows MSI or whatever....

How to Debug Following Fortran Program

I am trying to compile the following software so that I can step through and debug it. I am only a novice programmer and I am trying to understand how this whole makefile business works with Fortran. I know that there is a ton of literature on makefiles but I just need to insert a simple debug flag and I think if someone provided me with the answer to this question that would be the best way for me to learn.
So the program I am trying to compile, TINKER, is actually made up of several packages, located at http://dasher.wustl.edu/tinkerwiki/index.php/Main_Page. I would like to compile and debug JUST ONE specific executable, "analyze". I contacted the developer and received the following reply but I am still stuck...
Since TINKER has lots of small source code files, what we do is
compile each of the small files to an object file using the "-c" flag.
Then we put all of these object code files (ie, the ".o" files) into
an object library. Finally, we link each of the TINKER top level
programs, such as "analyze", against the object library. There is a
Makefile supplied with TINKER that does this. We also supply
individual scripts called "compile.make", "library.make" and
"link.make" for various CPU/compiler combinations that can be run in
order to perform the steps I describe above. To build a "debuggable"
executable, you just need to include the appropriate debug flags
(usually "-g") as part of the compile and link stages.
I am currently running OSX 10.6.8. If someone could show me which folders I cd into, what commands I enter that would be so great!
Thanks!
My follow up question (once I can figure out how to answer the above via command line will concern how to import the same procedure but using the Photran IDE - http://wiki.eclipse.org/PTP/photran/documentation/photran5#Starting_a_Project_with_a_Hand-Written_Makefile)
The directions are at http://dasher.wustl.edu/tinkerwiki/index.php/Main_Page#Installing_TINKER_on_your_Computer
Maybe out of date? g77 is obsolete -- it would be better to use gfortran.
The key steps: "The first step in building TINKER using the script files is to run the appropriate compile.make script for your operating system and compiler version. Next you must use a library.make script to create an archive of object code modules. Finally, run a link.make script to produce the complete set of TINKER executables. The executables can be renamed and moved to wherever you like by editing and running the ‘‘rename’’ script."
So cd to the directory for the Mac -- based on "we also provide machine-specific directories with three separate shell scripts to compile the source, build an object library, and link binary executables." Then run the command scripts. Probably ./compile.make. Look around for the directories ... you can probably figure it out from the names. Or search for the file "compile.make".
Or find someone local to you who knows more about programming.

create Qt project on windows operating system

i to create a QT project under windows operating system but when i try to run this application i found this error:
Starting C:\Source\test1\debug\test.exe...
The process could not be started!
can any one help me to know what is the problem
It sounds like you're trying to invoke this from an I.D.E. (like QT Creator) that can't find the executable.
Assuming it has been compiled, the I.D.E. may be trying to call it from the wrong directory.
Look in C:\Source\test1\debug and see if that executable exists.
If it's not there, it probably should be looking in C:\Source\test1\release.
Look there for the executable.
For QT Creator: I've found in the past that deleting the *.pro.user file and reopening the project works. The I.D.E. will ask/(force?) you to regenerate this file. Do so. This seems to fix many problems like this.
If you are using an I.D.E. as mentioned, it seems that your project configuration is broken. Save all source files and start a new project with the source files, and let the I.D.E. regenerate its scripts. Check the makefile for errors.

How to mimic DropBox functionality with Ruby script?

I would like to upload documents to GoogleDocs every time the OS hears that a file was added/dragged/saved in a designated folder, just the way DropBox uploads a file when you save it in the DropBox folder.
What would this take in Ruby, what are the parts?
How do you listen for when a File is Saved?
How do you listen for when a File is added to a Folder?
I understand how to use the GoogleDocs API and upload things once I get these events, but I'm not sure how this would work.
Update
While I still don't know how to check if a file is added to a directory, listening for when a file is saved is now dirt simple, thanks to Guard for ruby.
If I were faced with this, I would use something like git or bzr to handle the version checking and just call add then commit from your script and monitor which files have changed (and therefore need to be uploaded).
This adds the benefit of full version control over files and it's mostly cross platform (if you include binaries for each platform).
Note this doesn't handle your listening problem, just what you do when you know something has changed. You could schedule the task (via various routes) but I still like the idea of a proper VCS under the hood.
I just found this: http://www.codeforpeople.com/lib/ruby/dirwatch/
You'd need to read over it as I can't vouch for its efficiency or reliability. It appears to use SQLite, so it might be better just to manually check once every 10 seconds (or something along those lines).
Ruby doesn't include a built-in way to "listen" for updates to files. If you want to stick to pure Ruby, your best bet would be to perform the upload on a fixed schedule (say every 5 minutes) regardless of when the file is saved.
If this isn't an acceptable alternative, you could try writing the app (or at least certain parts of it) in Java, which does support this type of thing. Take a look at JRuby for integrating the Ruby and Java portions of your app.
Here is a pure ruby gem:
http://github.com/TwP/directory_watcher
I don't know the correct way of doing this, but a simple hack would be to have a script running in the background which checks the contents of a bunch of folders every n minutes and uses the associated timestamps to determine if the file was modified in that span of time
You would definitely need some native OS code here, to write the monitoring service/client. I'd select C++ if you want it to be cross platform. If you decide to go with .Net, for example, you can use the FileSystemWatcher class to achieve what you need (documentation and here's a related article).
Kind of an old thread, but I am faced with doing something similar and wanted to throw in my thoughts. The route I'm going is to have a ruby script that watches a given directory and checks the timestamps. Once all files have been uploaded, the script saves the latest timestamp and then polls the directory again, checking if any files/folders have been added. If files are found, then the script uploads them and updates the global timestamp, etc...
The downside is that setting up a ruby script to run continually (or as a service) is somewhat painful. But it's not an overwhelming task, just needs to be thought out properly.
Also depends on if your users are competent enough to have ruby installed or if you have to package everything up into a one-click installer as well. That, to me, is the hardest part to figure out.

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