FreeGuide source layout (and SVN migration)

Christian and others have pointed out lots of problems with the source code layout in FreeGuide. The biggest problem is that each plugin has its own source tree which makes it very difficult to set up in an IDE like Eclipse. I knew it needed doing, and the other night I couldn’t sleep and I felt like making it happen. Since SVN is so much better than CVS for re-arranging source code (because you can move files and keep their history) and because sourceforge are now offering SVN, I decided the right thing to do would be to migrate to SVN before making the changes.

So far, I have managed to get all the source code to build from the command line (instructions here: freeguide-tv.sourceforge.net/dev/index.php/Build_from_SVN) and I’m working on making the Ant build work again, although there’s still a bit to do there.

My aim is for it to be extremely easy to start developing FreeGuide: just download or check out the source code, fire up your editor or IDE, compile and run. That means FreeGuide needs to handle loading plugins from either JARs or directories (without being told which to do), and it needs to know where to look for its lib and doc directories if they are not specified.

Soon, it will Just Work. Then hopefully this will encourage more developers to get involved.

Meanwhile I’ve decided if I want to build up some momentum I need to balance my limited time between code and email, instead of just fire-fighting the email all the time. Some individual users may not get their questions answered, which I hate, but in the end it would be worse if the project lost interest and faded away. I need to inject some excitement!