Eclipse

Eclipse CDT can be used as a multi-feature editor and debugger for gnucash. Eclipse is a Java IDE but has a C/C++ project which has become quite mature. See www.eclipse.org/cdt/

Getting eclipse to work with gnucash

Precondition: Make sure gnucash compiles and installs successfully, before starting over with eclipse.

1. Download Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers from http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ and extract to some folder
2. Start eclipse
3. Create a new C-Project: File->New -> Empty C-Project:
   1. Location: enter the path to the existing source folder (e.g. C:\soft\gnucash\repos)
   2. deselect "Show project types and toolsets only if they are supported by the platform"
   3. Select Toolchain: "MinGW GCC"

1. Import include files

This is somehow ugly as you must give each directory individually. To browse the .h-includefiles you must enter each folder to the include path:

• Project ->Properties -> C/C++ Build -> Tab "Tool Settings" -> Directories: add the relevant include paths

e.g. "${workspace_loc:/gnucash/lib/libqof/backend}", ${workspace_loc:/gnucash/src/app-utils} etc. and C:\soft\gnome\include\gtk-2.0 and so on See also http://wiki.eclipse.org/CDT/User/FAQ#How_do_I_add_an_external_library_to_my_C.2B.2B_project.3F

There is much more support available: e.g. an eclipse plugin for Subversion integration (subclipse) and also a very helpful scheme editor plugin: schemeway.sourceforge.net

Edit

Some useful hints for editing:

• CTRL+Shift+T: Open Element (function, variable, Macro etc)
• CTRL+Shift+R: Open file
• F3: open the definition of an element
• CTRL+Alt+h: open call hierarchy

... and much more...

Build

Eclipse won’t help you much here. You are always faster if you make_install in a shell window in the directory tree you were editing. To avoid annoying warnings you should turn off automatic build:

• Project -> Build automatically
• Preferences->Run/Debug->"build (if required) before launching".

Debug

Debugging is also possible:

1. Run->Open Debug Dialog ->"C/C++ Attach to local app" -> New
2. Select C:\soft\gnucash\inst\bin\gnucash-bin.exe
3. You must specify the path to your source folder: Path mapping "../../../repos" to "C:\soft\gnucash\repos"
4. Now start gnucash as usual from inst/bin (ignore warnings about errors in workspace)
5. Launch your debugging configuration in eclipse
6. Select the process to attach to (gnucash-bin.exe)
7. The process will be interrupted. Try if you can browse to gnc_ui_start_event_loop. If not start over with the Source tab (see step 3).
8. Make sure you have put some breakpoints in and hit Continue
9. If a breakpoint is encountered you can step through with F6, F5 etc. inspect variables and so on.