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c++eclipseprojectsrtc

RTC with Eclipse: is it desirable for code to be stored in a fully configured Eclipse project?


Recently my project group bought a C/C++ codebase from a contractor which does not use Eclipse. Basically a big /src tree organized for building with Autotools, with a few top-level build scripts masking some of the Autotools complexity.

Developers on our project team have managed to set up the code in Eclipse (Luna) as an Autotools project...but what is currently causing grief, is that as we begin to work with this code, project CM is also moving to Jazz / RTC 5 (Formal process, not Agile) from ClearCase/ClearQuest.

None of us are clear about whether the code should go into the RTC repository in the form of a fully configured Eclipse project ready for developers to use.

My reading as a developer is that it must: if it doesn't, when I download the code to my repository workspace, I have to begin by bringing in new .project, .cproject, and .autotools files "behind the scenes" to get to a project that specifies the include paths I need, allows for C/C++ code analysis, and (hopefully) can be re-tweaked for Autotools building from within Eclipse. It also means when I deliver change sets back, it is likely to take a variety of error-prone workarounds to avoid delivering project-specific settings that aren't part of the codebase as conceived by CM. Right now, that's being held as close as possible to the contractor's delivered (non-Eclipse) package.

What I'm hoping, is that anyone can tell me if it is standard practice when using RTC with Eclipse, to set up one's code in RTC in the form of fully configured, ready-to-use Eclipse projects. The language used in the articles I'm finding suggests it, eg., talking about "Find and load Eclipse projects", but nothing I'm seeing makes this explicit.


Solution

  • is that anyone can tell me if it is standard practice when using RTC with Eclipse, to set up one's code in RTC in the form of fully configured, ready-to-use Eclipse projects.

    That is a standard with any source control tool.
    See "Shoul I keep my project files under version control?" or ".classpath and .project - check into version control or not?".

    RTC simply suggest to create a .project just to reference the files of the component in the Eclipse workspace (as a convenience, to facilitate the file exploration of a given RTC component).
    But that is separate from having a full-fledged .project, with many additional settings configured there.