Groovy-Eclipse 2.1.2 New and Noteworthy

You can use the following update site to install this release.

Groovy-Eclipse update site for Eclipse 3.6 http://dist.springsource.org/release/GRECLIPSE/e3.6/

And a zipped version of the update site is available at:

Zipped Groovy-Eclipse update site for Eclipse 3.6 http://dist.springsource.org/release/GRECLIPSE/e3.6/archive-2.1.2.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

You can install from the zip by pointing your Eclipse update manager to the downloaded zip file and following the installation instructions.

Snapshot versions targeting Eclipse 3.7 are available. Our 3.7 support is in beta. Although largely working, some functionality may be missing or buggy. You can access the 3.7 update site here:

Groovy-Eclipse snapshot update site targeting Eclipse 3.7 http://dist.codehaus.org/groovy/distributions/greclipse/snapshot/e3.7/

Outline

Find occurrences in groovy files (CTRL-Shift-U)

Mark occurrences now works

Improved syntax highlighting

Better type inferencing for closures inside DGM calls

Ability to set Method entry breakpoints

Fixed some issues preventing the setting of breakpoints

Timers for ast transform operations now shown in Groovy Event Console

Now includes Groovy 1.7.8

Basic support for Groovy++

Better ordering for Quick fixes and content assist (GRECLIPSE-936)

Suggested types to import in both quick fix and content assist are now ordered based on various criteria. Types imported from java., groovy., groovyx., and javax. have higher priority, in that order, than types from other packages as seen in this screen shot where the type "ExtendedList" is being imported:

file

However, if importing types from similarly named packages as well as types declared in the same top level type like a private nested type, the private nested type has higher precedence, followed by public types from similarly named packages, followed by types from java., groovy., groovyx., javax., and finally types from other packages. The following screen shows the private type "ExtendedList" appearing first in the content assist suggestion, followed by a type from a similarly named package, followed by the remaining suggestions:

file

Headless Groovy-Eclipse feature (GRECLIPSE-716)

Those who wish to install Groovy-Eclipse without any UI components can do so from the update site. The feature id is org.codehaus.groovy.headless.feature. This is primarily useful for those who are performing headless builds using PDE or Buckminster. Note that this feature is uncategorized in the update site, so under normal circumstances you will not see it in Eclipse's Update Manager. However, if you uncheck "Group items by category", you will see the feature.

Type inferencing for getAt (GRECLIPSE-742)

Custom getAt(String) methods will now be used to feed the inferencing engine when using '[ ]'. For example:

In the preceeding code, notice how the reference to the name field is correctly resolved to coming from the MyTree class.

Better unicode support (GRECLIPSE-805 and GROOVY-4378)

Unicode escape sequences (e.g., \uE096 ) now have correct offsets and lengths in the parse tree, so you can use unicode escape sequences freely in your Groovy code and source locations in your file will not be corrupted.

Performance improvements

We have made several performance enhancements for the 2.1.2 release, below are the two most notable ones. They primarily target content assist.

Code assist performance has been improved

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Speedier type inferencing (GRECLIPSE-995)

Where appropriate, the inferencing engine will not visit the entire file to determine the type of a single expression. Rather, it will prune the branches of the AST and only visit the method or field declaration that contains the expression to be inferred. This has a noticeable affect on content assist invocation speeds.

Optional non-jar locking behaviour on Windows

On windows there is now an option to try and avoid Groovy-Eclipse locking jars and preventing them from being updated (or removed, in the case of attempting to uninstall a plugin in a grails project). Specify the system property -Dgreclipse.nonlocking=true when starting STS to activate the use of non locking classloaders. If no problems come up over the next few releases this may be made the default mode of operation. Locks should also be released (regardless of that system property setting) if the offending project is closed.

Compatibility

Groovy-Eclipse 2.1.2 includes Groovy 1.7.8 and is installable on STS 2.6.0, Eclipse 3.6.0, 3.6.1, or 3.6.2. Snapshot builds targeting Eclipse 3.7 are available as well. See above for the update site.

Bug fixes

Over 50 issues have been fixed for this release.

What's next?

The 2.2.0 final release is scheduled for the end of June, around the time that STS 2.6.1 and Eclipse 3.7 will be released. We will consider a 2.1.3 release that includes Groovy 1.8 support.

We appreciate community support and feedback. If you wish to join the discussion about Groovy-Eclipse then please sign up for the mailing list. For any issues you have (or enhancements you would like to see), please raise them in our issue tracker. If there is an existing bug fix or enhancement that you require are not seeing any movement on, please make some noise on it (and get your friends to do the same). We respond to community feedback, but we can only do so when we hear from the community.