How do I install Rascal

Question

Can someone tell me how to install Rascal?

The install instruction say - Eclipse Indigo for RCP/RAP - got it. Then Install New Software and put in the repository address: http://update.rascal-mpl.org/stable/ - done that Check "Contact all update sites during install to find required software" - ok

Hit Next, and it complains can't find Jetty, so set up its repo, can't find some Http lib, and on it goes.

Answer 1

What I have done, after I temporarily gave up on Eclipse, is to compile using the Maven build.

This makes me think, is a dependency missing from the Developer Dependencies list? That being the 'rascal-master' project, which contains not much more than the top-level pom.xml file?

I downloaded that too, and tried to build. It did not work because Tycho could not resolve dependencies correctly, it ended up looking for pdb.values:0.0.0 instead of the correct version, I don't know how it managed to zero out the version.

I notice that there is a Jenkins build server, which presumably runs off the Maven poms? It might be an idea to update the Developer Dependencies page with an accurate list of what needs checked out to build from scratch with Maven. It should be as easy as check out some projects, then type 'mvn install' and it all works nicely. Perhaps that is already the case on the build server, but I can't get into the configurations to see how that works.

In the end I removed Tycho from the build, and found enough dependencies in the Maven central repo by hand to get it building, and just put in statements for each of them.

It really is a sad state of affairs the way that Eclipse disrespects the Maven repository, by creating their own and using their own format and tool; Tycho will not download stuff from Eclipse and put it in your local repository, from where you could use it in a more sane way.

Answer 2

The installation instructions seems to be outdated. I can confirm that Rascal will not install with Eclipse Indigo due to dependency errors. It works fine with Eclipse Juno for RCP/RAP.

Answer 3

Ouch, that's a painfull experience, it should not have been this hard, I will look into this.

As workaround: see Rascal Developer dependencies , if you install these dependencies by hand, it should work.

If you continue experiencing installation problems, leave a Github issue, since that is more suited for back and forward conversations.

Answer 4

To use Maven, you also need to insert the following into the pom.xml of rascal-master (replacing the old modules section if there is one):

    <modules>
            <module>../pdb</module>
            <module>../pdb.ui</module>
            <module>../pdb.values</module>
            <module>../imp.runtime</module>
            <module>../imp.pom</module>
            <module>../ambidexter</module>
            <module>../rascal</module>
            <module>../rascal-eclipse</module>
            <module>../rascal-shell</module>
            <module>../rascal-feature</module>
            <module>../rascal-update-site</module>
    </modules>

Then run "mvn clean install" or "mvn clean install -DskipTests=true" from inside rascal-master.