What's New in Eclipse 3.2 Java Development Tools (O'ReillyNet)

[Posted June 29, 2006 by cook]

Ed Burnette reviews the Eclipse 3.2 Java Development Tools on O'Reilly. "The popular Eclipse IDE's latest release, version 3.2, is the cornerstone of an ambitious release of ten Eclipse-branded projects on the same day. But what's in it for you? Ed Burnette takes a look at the new features in Eclipse's Java Development Tools and shows you how they'll make your development much easier."

Rules of compilation

Posted Jul 6, 2006 21:51 UTC (Thu) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link] (1 responses)

The JDT compiler was originally written for VAME, and modified for Eclipse.
It was built on what the developers call "The Three Rules of Compilation,"
patterned after Asimov's rules of robotics:

   1. Correctness: A compiler may not harm a source program.
   2. Efficiency: A compiler must be fast, except where speed would conflict
      with the first law.
   3. Friendliness: A compiler must assist the user to correct programming
      errors, as long as such assistance does not conflict with the first
      and second laws.

It's funny that Isaac Asimov puts humans first, whereas IBM gives them the third place.

Rules of compilation

Posted Jul 6, 2006 23:29 UTC (Thu) by zlynx (guest, #2285) [Link]

It is a little funny, but taken seriously I agree with the rules. As a programmer I would much rather have an unfriendly but correct compiler. Hunting down bugs in compiler generated assembly is not fun.