Sunday, January 18, 2009

Project Darkstar 0.9.8 incompatible changes a pain in the butt

Some time ago I've created a Netbeans plugin for project Darkstar. I've had good fun writing it and for the most part even maintaining it. The trouble with writing a pluging that depends on a piece of software with version number like 0.x.x is that it's external interface (the way it is started/stopped etc.) is bound to change often and sometimes quite drastically :)
There have been some minor changes in the past but mostly I was able to deal with them inside a few hours, this time however, I got blown away. Darkstar version 0.9.8 completely changes the way the server is started and stopped as well as the way applications are deployed. It has changed the internal directory structure so that version 0.9.8 is no longer even recognized by my plugin (just as well since none of the other functionality would work anyway).
Despite the fact that I will have to rethink the whole plugin UI and internal workings I am very excited about this development because it is definitely for the better. It is now easier for anyone to work with Darkstar even from command line, and the fact that application.properties file is now included inside the application JAR, rather then a separate file, means everything makes more sense and will fit better with the NetBeans way of doing things. It is good to see that Project Darkstar is moving forward in the right direction. It makes me feel that my decision to support it and invest my time was the right one.
I already have some ideas as to how I will approach the new UI which should make the NetBeans plugin more useful and powerful.

3 comments:

Tushar Joshi said...

It is interesting to see your approach when the Darkstar interfaces change.

Have you ever faced the same problem when NetBeans versions change, for example say to maintain between NetBeans 6.1 version to NetBeans 6.5 version of the platform for your plugin?

with regards
Tushar Joshi, Nagpur
http://netbeanside61.blogspot.com

Unknown said...

Hey,
sorry I know this is not the place for this, but I didn't find a better place yet :D. I cannot access the darkstar website since some time. Is that a known problem or is it something with my provider?
Thank you very much,
Bye
Christian

Zero Effort said...

Hi Tushar,
I haven't really encountered the API problem within NetBeans. I use APIs like Nodes, Lookups, etc. that have been around for ages and won't likely ever change :) When I was developing the project initially for the NetBeans innovators grant I started with NB 6.1 and when the requirement came in to make our projects compatible with NB 6.5 everything just compiled. This hasn't been so much the case with PDS but then again it doesn't have the maturity. I m happy to accommodate changes is they mean improvements.
K