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Help using jGRASP

What is jGRASP?

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”.

Entering Command-Line Arguments

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().

Setting the Tab Size

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.

Changing Tabs to Spaces (and Back)

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.

Using checkstyle

Selecting a Checks File

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.

Running Checkstyle

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

Cleaning-Up Indenting

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).

Using JUnit with jGRASP

Configuration

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.

Creating a Test Class

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 doint, you should probably delete all of the code that jGrasp inserts into this class and start from scratch.

Compiling and Running a Test Class

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.