Can IDEA perform true minimum compilation with alternative compilers? Follow

A colleague just showed Eclipse functionality where
you could run a piece of a junit test, just a method,
even when another method in the same unit test class
was uncompilable.

To do the same in IDEA:
1. Use the Eclipse compiler
2. Specify "-proceedOnError" as a command line parameter
3. Disable "Make before launch" in your run configuration

-proceedOnError instructs the Eclipse compiler to continue compiling when an error is found. Any code containing an error is stubbed so it will just throw an error at runtime. Make before launch has to be disabled, because a launch will not continue if the compiler reported errors.

He also showed where Eclipse could
build just the minimum that was absolutely necessary
to run the test if you were starting fresh having
never compiled the project before - so maybe it
compiles the 10 truly necessary classes instead of
1000+.

Enable "Honor dependencies on 'compile' command" in the compiler settings and use Compile (not Make) to compile your test. Again "Make before launch" has to be disabled.

Bas

why would anyone want to do that?

"oops, forgot to fix that error before i started my 4 week holiday tour because in eclipse i could run it"

why would anyone want to do that?

It does seem like a strange use case but the Eclipse guy is very excited/proud of this feature and stated it was why he gave up on his tentative first attempt to use IDEA....so I was hoping there might be a way to tempt him back.

FYI - for those not using the web interface, Bas posted an answer visible on the web interface only that tells you how to accomplish the same thing in IDEA. Unfortunately the synching on these forums between the web interface and newsreader interfaces is broken and has remained unreliable for ages despite feedback and complaints.

Bas,

It all works as expected with these settings. Thanks for the info! May be able to get a convert with this.

Jon

A colleague just showed Eclipse functionality

where

you could run a piece of a junit test, just a

method,

even when another method in the same unit test

class

was uncompilable.

To do the same in IDEA:
1. Use the Eclipse compiler
2. Specify "-proceedOnError" as a command line
parameter
3. Disable "Make before launch" in your run
configuration

-proceedOnError instructs the Eclipse compiler to
continue compiling when an error is found. Any code
containing an error is stubbed so it will just throw
an error at runtime. Make before launch has to be
disabled, because a launch will not continue if the
compiler reported errors.

He also showed where Eclipse could
build just the minimum that was absolutely

necessary

to run the test if you were starting fresh having
never compiled the project before - so maybe it
compiles the 10 truly necessary classes instead of
1000+.

Enable "Honor dependencies on 'compile' command" in
the compiler settings and use Compile (not Make) to
compile your test. Again "Make before launch" has to
be disabled.

Bas

I have posted an item on
http://www.intellij.net/forums/forum.jspa?forumID=29&start=0 about
this... just want to make sure this is picked up and sorted - us
forum-hounds using NNTP don't want to miss a thing.

N.

Jon Steelman wrote:

Unfortunately the synching on these forums between the web interface
and newsreader interfaces is broken and has remained unreliable for
ages despite feedback and complaints.