SPA Conference session: Using Eclipse to Explore Other People's Code

One-line description:An examination of the Eclipse plugins for exploring Java codebases
 
Session format: Workshop (150 mins) [read about the different session types]
 
Abstract:Coming to understand a new code body can be daunting. Eclipse offers some helpful tools, such as the call hierarchy, the declaration view and the references search. However, all of these offer an extremely localised view. There are a few plugins that offer an overview of the system as reverse engineered UML class diagrams, but these often overwhelm with detail.

One really needs the ability to construct different perspectives on the code, aimed at answering specific questions, such as: which methods throw an IOException, which classes refer to com.mypackage or which classes contain 'Account' in their name?

This session will initially cover ways of using the Eclipse built-in features to explore a sizeable and evolving Java project. Then we will look at extra facilities which are offered by various plugins and finally consider the approach taken by AgileJ StructureViews in offering user-configurable presentations.
 
Audience background:Java programmers familiar with the Eclipse IDE.
 
Benefits of participating:Participants will gain understanding of the current Eclipse-based tools for code exploration and how they might be extended.
 
Materials provided:Example codebase
Tools (Eclipse plugins)
Session notes
 
Process:Presentations, practicals, and discussion.
 
Detailed timetable:
 
Outputs:The session outputs will be emailed to participants and published to a web page.
 
History:n/a
 
Presenters
1. Paul Wells
AgileJ
2. Benedict Heal
Independent
3.