[NETBEANS-4328] Make sure JavaFX is recommended but not required on JDK 11+. #2135
Conversation
There was a problem hiding this comment.
-1 from me. The behavior (of requiring JavaFX) was introduced by NETBEANS-2439 half a year ago. It is too late to change it for 12.0 at least I cannot support regression in https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-2439 few days before 12.0 release.
The proper fix would, in my opinion, be to move the JavaFX and Java Frontend Application wizards to javafx cluster. Then only JavaFX related functionality would require downloading JavaFX. Again, it is too late to do that in 12.0 in my opinion.
|
@JaroslavTulach OK, so what is your desired solution for 12.0? We shouldn't make JavaFX non-optional, nor have the current situation that forces nb-javac installation alongside - nb-javac doesn't support Java 14. We've treated non-optional installation of either as a blocker in the past because it's counter to ASF policy, and this basically blocks the UI on first run. |
|
An open question: why not let the user override with a checkbox "No I don't want that!"? I tried to get a quick look at the code, but I was mildly baffeld to see the method "isRequired", that interprets properties, that are named recommed and derives from these hard requirements. It would be nice if @dukescript could chime in as the author of the offending commit. |
|
@matthiasblaesing agreed, and it is also this use of isRequired for the UI that is forcing JavaFX and nb-javac installation in the scenarios outlined, away from wizard use. If the user is unwilling, or unable, to install both then it leads to the dialog cascade mentioned in NETBEANS-3810, effectively rendering the IDE unusable. |
|
Ok - I rethought this. From my perspective the real problem is the incompatibility of nbjavac with JDK 14. The same will be true for 15 and onwards. It would be better to really only depend on FX if necessary, but that indeed might to much for now. We also have a hard dependency on an installed GPLv2ed javac and noone bothers, so ... If the above is accepted, the real issue is, that feature on demand behaves different in the new project dialog, than in the activation dialog, that pops up, when you open a project: New project dialog - feature activation (notice that only FX is required, nbjavac is not required) Project open - feature activation (notice, that you can only install both or none) So as a stop-gap measure, it might be easiest to ask the user at this point whether he/she wants to install only FX or also nbjavac? |
|
If we can show a dialog there, that would seem like a good solution to me. |
|
I don't think we can require JavaFX. It's fundamentally different to Java itself because we're downloading it, not relying on a system install - it needs to follow ASF rules on optional dependencies http://apache.org/legal/resolved#optional Prior to 11.3, Java support worked without JavaFX, why require it now just to fix one feature? Read the description in https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-3810 of what happens in 11.3 vs 11.2 if the user cannot download JavaFX. It turned something that mostly worked to completely unusable. |
|
Well, I'd say: As a side note, I never quite understood the real point behind system dependencies - we can say "NetBeans requires a JDK with JavaFX", and it will be OK. But we cannot say "NetBeans requires a JDK" and provide in some way the JavaFX - despite the latter is giving the user much more freedom in his/hers choices. |
|
Yes, you don't have to convince me of the absurdity of the "system dependencies" argument - made it many times! 😄 I'm not sure it gets us out of the need to follow the rules that exist now. It also doesn't get away from the user effectively being left to force quit the IDE if the download won't work during import settings. That seems a much bigger regression in 11.3. Can you replicate that incidentally? |
Perhaps even easier, don't handle nbjavac at all in this dialog. But mention in the existing dialog that nb-javac could/should be installed manually in certain circumstances. Recall that there was a "bold suggestion" by Gj to require jdk14 for editing. |
|
-1 to current diff. +1 to fixing Project open - feature activation dialog. Consider #2137 - which shall be the direction to solve the JavaFX download problem in the future. |
|
@dukescript +1 to moving to JavaFX and to fixing feature activation, but I'm not sure we can achieve that for 12.0. If I'd noticed how #1612 was working at the time I'd have -1'd it - I'm still of the opinion it probably needs to be reverted for 12.0, and we live with < 11.2 behaviour. There are multiple causes of issue 2439, including moving from JDK 8 which this doesn't solve, and network / download problems, which this has made far worse. Feature on demand activation doesn't handle network problems gracefully at all, and there are various reports of download issues with these modules for all sorts of reasons (network errors, firewalls, etc.) Try this, roughly as discussed on dev@ -
Prior to 11.3 people had a broken wizard in this scenario, they now have a broken IDE (well, it's fixable if you really know how). The ASF policy issue is a blocker in my opinion, but that technical issue seems far worse for the end user. |
|
So that other don't have to rebuild the test case. For every open java project the user will be prompted by the "NetBeans IDE Installer" (the autoupdate component) to install "JavaFX implementation for X" and "nb-javac" (This is on JDK 11 and should not happen). The dialog can be canceled, the project will then be marked broken. If download fails, an error dialog is presented, that allows to retry. If that is cancled, process goes on and project is also marked as broken. For the next project the dialog is presented again. The issue for me is, that nbjavac is forced, although I'm running on JDK11. The only work around was this:
What happens with the IDE if ergonomics is not present and the extra clusters is not installed? If that works, why don't we just remove ergonomic right now, if it is such a PITA? |
|
If someone whats to look into this. The magic happens in org.netbeans.modules.ide.ergonomics.fod.FeatureProjectFactory.FeatureNonProject.FeatureOpenHook (ergonomics/ide.ergonomics/src/org/netbeans/modules/ide/ergonomics/fod/FeatureProjectFactory.java). |
|
@matthiasblaesing removing ergonomics would be a bit drastic at this stage, although it's certainly caused a range of issues over the last few releases - needs some love from 12.1. I deliberately went for the minimal option first, but if we can't get consensus on that, it would be good to get consensus on something that addresses the problem. There are certainly issues (aside from policy) with requiring a dependency and assuming an infallible network connection - that was a cause of NETBEANS-2439 in the first place - we've just made it worse for them. We have reports in JIRA from 11.3 complaining about this issue. I would expect more with 12.0 having a longer lifetime. |
|
@matthiasblaesing btw, the better "workaround" is -
|
|
This is even more broken than I thought. I'm on linux and I was asked to install "JavaFX for Windows" and just now "JavaFX for Mac OS X" - what a trainwreck. |
|
Probably a result of using the regexp in the list of recommended modules. That's not ideal, but (assuming the proper module gets installed at the end), it is just very low priority UI issue. |
|
@JaroslavTulach pushed a couple of minimal (and somewhat ugly) changes. This keeps the UI in the wizard mostly the same, but doesn't use the required status underneath so that cancellation or network failure don't break everything. Also stops the same dialog cascade at startup with nb-javac on JDK 8, and appears to fix https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-3732 as well. This any better for you? Pending better fixing in 12.1 obviously! 😄 Aside - how does one exclude the extra cluster when running in the debugger from the IDE? It was really confusing me why JavaFX wasn't showing up when stepping through this for a moment! |
|
I usually use |
|
@JaroslavTulach ah, thanks - the kill it with fire approach! 😄 I was doing the second bit ( |
|
@JaroslavTulach thanks for allowing a kind of agreement. |
|
@ebarboni OK, thanks, squashed locally and merging. |
This is a bare minimum fix to ensure that the user can opt out of nb-javac and JavaFX installation when enabling Java support via Open Project or import settings. This is particularly bad in import settings as it causes a continuous cascade of dialogs on first run. See mention in https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-3810
Merging this would (partially?) break the fix for https://issues.apache.org/jira/browse/NETBEANS-2439 in #1612 IMO that triggered what should have been a blocker for 11.3 though.