[Module] How to create a module that plays a sound whenever the Java parser detects an error

[he...@gmail.com]

Greetings:

 

I hope that you and all your loved ones are safe and healthy.  I write to
you because I have spent days scouring over the documentation trying to find
out how could I create a Netbeans module that plays a feedback sound
whenever the user makes a syntax mistake when typing (Java) code.  All
documentation I have read requires me to create my own Java lexer and
parser, which I think can be avoided if I could just piggyback on the
built-in Java parser and install a listener or something somewhere (I don't
know!) that allows me to playback the sound when the error is detected.
Please help!  This is for my doctoral dissertation.

 

Best regards,

Henry F. Bruckman Vargas

 

Re: [Module] How to create a module that plays a sound whenever the Java parser detects an error

[Tim Boudreau <ni...@gmail.com>]

You probably don't actually want to play a sound whenever the IDE detects
an error - different parts of the IDE may request a reparse of the
currently edited file (or any other file) for any reason at any time,
including a single edit triggering several consecutive reparses, depending
on the order things happen in.

You also likely don't want to play a sound every time an error is
encountered ANYWHERE in the currently edited file, as it's easy to, say,
change the signature of a method at the bottom of a file, turning calls to
that method into errors.

You *also* probably don't want to play a sound on every character of an
incompletely typed keyword until it is complete.

There is one thing I can't stress enough:  *In an IDE, the normal state of
source files is broken.*

What I *think *you actually want to do is:
 * Listen for changes in which document is currently being edited (listen
for changes on TopComponent.getRegistry(), try to get an EditorCookie from
the currently active component, if it has a document, get it and listen on
it;  or EditorRegistry may offer a simpler path to get the current editor)
 * Listen for changes in that document (plain old Swing document listener,
but probably ask - I think it is one of NbEditorUtilities,
LineDocumentUtilities or NbDocument - has a method
isTypingModification(DocumentEvent) that will let you differentiate
automated document changes like pastes and refactorings, from actual user
typing
 * Listen for changes in the caret position in that document - from the
document, get the editor from EditorRegistry, then
JTextComponent.getCaret().addCaretListener()
 * Listen for updates to the *error annotations* on that document.  I don't
know a fabulous, supported way to get that - the one module I ever wrote
that needed to do that achieved it via the hack of replacing the default
editor AnnotationViewFactory (thing that supplies the component with the
marks in the right margin of the editor on syntax errors, diffs, etc.) with
my own clone of the default one, which I could then get the error
annotations from:
https://github.com/timboudreau/netbeans-contrib/blob/master/fisheye/src/main/java/org/netbeans/modules/fisheye/hacks/FisheyeAnnotationViewFactory.java
 * Make your sound *only when:*
    * The user has stopped typing for some threshold number of milliseconds
(350 is probably a good starting point) - RequestProcessor.Task is your
friend for rescheduling the pending potential beep on keystrokes
    * An error annotation exists or comes into existence shortly after
typing stops *within one character of the caret position*

Now, all that said, I have to ask:  Is what you're building a torture
device?  What is the actual problem you're trying to solve?

-Tim

On Thu, Oct 15, 2020 at 8:35 AM <he...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Greetings:
>
>
>
> I hope that you and all your loved ones are safe and healthy.  I write to
> you because I have spent days scouring over the documentation trying to
> find
> out how could I create a Netbeans module that plays a feedback sound
> whenever the user makes a syntax mistake when typing (Java) code.  All
> documentation I have read requires me to create my own Java lexer and
> parser, which I think can be avoided if I could just piggyback on the
> built-in Java parser and install a listener or something somewhere (I don't
> know!) that allows me to playback the sound when the error is detected.
> Please help!  This is for my doctoral dissertation.
>
>
>
> Best regards,
>
> Henry F. Bruckman Vargas
>
>
>
>

-- 
http://timboudreau.com