Getting the code

The first thing you probably want to do in order to code in PyDev is getting its code.

Pre-requisites: Eclipse SDK 3.6.0, Git and Java 5.0 (note that other versions of those should work too but details may differ a bit)

Before getting the code, there's an important step you need to make: Change your java 'compiler compliance-level' to 5.0. To do this, go to window > preferences > Java > compiler and change that setting from 1.4 to 5.0.

Configuring the environment after getting the code

Important: Before doing any changes to the code it's important to note that you should create a new branch for doing code changes. See: http://book.git-scm.com/3_basic_branching_and_merging.html and also http://nvie.com/git-model for details on creating and using branches.

After getting the code, you'll probably note that the tests did not compile successfully. This is because there are some settings that will depend on your installation, and this settings are stored in a class that holds that info (which you'll have to create).

There is a 'template' for that file at:

org.python.pydev.core/tests/org.python.pydev.core/TestDependent.OS.template. You should create a copy of that file in that same dir named TestDependent.java and set the needed things according to your installation. If there is still something that does not compile, it may mean that:

• There is something missing in that TestDependent.java file because it is not synched with all the dependencies (if so, just add the needed variable to it)
• The head does not compile in git -- if you believe that is the case, send an e-mail to the pydev-code list at sourceforge to know what's happening.

Where to start?

Ok, this may be the most difficult thing... especially because answers may change a lot depending on what you want to do, so, below are outlined 2 different approaches:

• Extending PyDev with Jython: recommended if you want to add some editor-related action or something that does not need implementing some Eclipse extension-point.
• Extending PyDev in Java: if you want something that won't map to an action, this might be the better way to go.

To start in any of those approaches it might be worth taking a look at some Eclipse documentation, to try to grasp some of its concepts. One of the finest documentations for that is the Eclipse FAQ.

If you want to take the Jython approach, check out this article on how to do jython scripting in PyDev

For supporting a new Python based language, the first step would be creating a grammar that can parse it while providing a Python like AST. See: PyDev Grammar for instructions on that.

And that's it. If you have further doubts about how to code in PyDev, direct your questions to the pydev-code list at sourceforge.

Creating a distribution locally

Provided that the steps were followed, PyDev should have the following structure:

/builders
        /org.python.pydev.build

/features
        /org.python.pydev.feature

/plugins
        /org.python.pydev
        ... (other plugins)

Now, on to the build: start a shell and follow the instructions at /plugins/org.python.pydev.build/build_cmd.txt (read the end of the file for details on customizing it properly)

Contributing back

If you do some change at PyDev that you want to contribute back to the main trunk, you should create a patch and attach it to a bug in the sourceforge tracker with the title: [PATCH] description of the patch

NOTE 1: Diffs do not work well for binary files, so, if you made some change to some image, please attach the changed image itself, pointing the complete location to the image when attaching it to the bug.

NOTE 2: If you did some whole new script that uses the 'jython scripting in PyDev' infrastructure, you do not need to create a patch. Just attach the script itself to the bug.