JMU CS Wiki

According to www.jGRASP.org , “jGRASP is a lightweight development environment, created specifically to provide automatic generation of software visualizations to improve the comprehensibility of software”.

Command-line arguments are the String objects that are passed to the main() method (as a String[]). They can be set/entered in several ways.

One way is to click on Build and pull down to Run Arguments. This will open an entry field below the tool bar that you can use to enter the arguments (delimited by spaces) that will be passed to main() when you run the application.

You can also “permanently” set the command-line arguments by clicking on Settings, pulling down to Compiler Settings and then over to Workspace or File, whichever you prefer. Then select the “Compiler” tab and the “Flags/Args” tab. The “Run” field under “FLAGS or ARGS” contains the command-line arguments. When the box next to it is selected, no arguments are passed to main(), when it isn't whatever arguments are in the field are passed to main().

To set the tab size, click on Settings+CSD Window and then select either File, Project or Workspace (depending on which you want to change). Then “unlock” the tab size slider (by clicking on the default box) and change the “Tab Size” to the value you want.

Some editors use tabs and some use spaces. This makes it a little difficult to move between editors. Most, however, allow you to switch between the two. In jGRASP:

1. Select the text you want to change.
2. Click on Edit+Spaces/Tabs and then Tabify or Untabify.

Linux/Unix, MS-Windows, and OS X all use slightly different characters to indicate the end of a line and this can cause problems with some tools. As a general rule, it is safest to use the Linux/Unix standard.

You can instruct jGRASP to use the Unix format when you save a file by clicking on File+Save as and then selecting “Binary/Unix” under “Format”.

jGRASP does not have a command that re-indents code, but you can trick it into doing so.

1. Click on View+Generate CSD (or the button).
2. Click on View+Remove CSD (or the button).

In jGRASP, click on Tools, pull down to Checkstyle and across to Settings. In the field labeled “Checks File” navigate to the .xml file. Then, click on OK.

You must exit and re-start jGRASP for the change to take effect.

1. Download an appropriate checkstyle jar file, either provided by your instructor or from this link to 8.45.
   • Right-click and choose “Save Link As…'
   • put this somewhere on the computer that you won't accidentally delete it before you're done with it.
2. In jGRASP, click on Tools, pull down to Checkstyle and across to Settings. For the field labeled “Checkstyle Home or Jar” , click Browse, navigate to the .xml file. Then, click on OK.

In jGRASP, click on Tools, pull down to Checkstyle and over to Check File (or click on ).

Most styleguides require that files end in a newline character. So, it is important to use the Linux/Unix end of line character.

To configure jGRASP to work with JUnit, click on Tools, pull down to JUnit and select Configure. Then, in the textfield labeled “JUnit Home”, browse to the directory/folder that has junit.jar.

If you have properly configured jGRASP, the “Create JUnit test file” button, , will appear whenever you open a .java file.

Though it's not absolutely necessary (depending on how you create your test classes), you should also add junit.jar to the CLASSPATH for your workspace. To do so, click on Settings-PATH/CLASSPATH -Workspace and select the CLASSPATHS tab. Then, click on New and add junit.jar.

To create a JUnit test class for an existing class, open the source file for that class and click on . This will create an empty class for you to complete. (If you already have such a test class it will ask if you want to re-use it.) It will also add the and buttons (for compiling and running test classes). (Note: If you don't create the file this way, you must add junit.jar to the CLASSPATH for your workspace. See above.)

Unless you understand what it is doing, you should probably delete all of the code that jGrasp inserts into this class and start from scratch.

To compile a test class click on and to run a test class click on . As always in jGrasp, the test class must have the focus to compile and/or run it.