Eclipse cannot “retrieve ‘feature.xml’”, apparently.

I was getting the following error message in Eclipse, when I tried to use the software update (which, for some inexplicable reason, is accessible from the “help” menu):

Error retrieving “feature.xml”. [error in opening zip file]

Other than the fact that it probably shouldn’t have been appearing anyway, what’s particularly galling about this error message is that it offers no clue as to what the f*ck has gone wrong, nor even why it matters. The only visible effect of this error was that the eclipse update websites didn’t appear in the list, and that a dialog with the error message would pop up with just about any action I would take (other than closing the update dialog completely).

Very, very, stupid.

I did what I have increasingly found to be the quickest and easiest method of solving problems such as these: A Google search. It led me to this web page:

http://www.easywms.com/easywms/?q=en/node/97

…Sure enough, deleting site.xml from inside my eclipse installation directory made the problem magically go away. It turns out that the eclipse CDT (C development tools) zip file which I had downloaded, was actually meant for retrieval via the eclipse updater and not meant to be installed by simply unzipping it inside my eclipse directory as I had done. Clearly the CDT guys are partly to blame for this because they don’t seem to actually provide any other downloadable version.

But… I mean, should the presence of some file in the installation directory really cause such an annoying problem? And if it does, shouldn’t the error message at least attempt to explain what the problem actually is?

Psi release announcement

Apparently Psi releases are announced on Freshmeat before being announced on the Psi website? WTF?

Edit 23/10/07: The website has finally been updated. It took a few days.

Eclipse website

What the hell is the matter with the people who design the eclipse website? It’s not clear what the latest release is nor how to find out (3.3.1, I think). When I click “download” the choice I am presented with is a bunch of language IDEs – why can’t I download the components like I used to be able to? Ok, I can; I have to “browse downloads by project” – which is hidden in a small box at the right of the download page – then choose “Eclipse Platform” (or JDT or PDE, which link to the same destination, though other items under the “Eclipse Project” don’t) – then click on the release which it turns out is 3.3.1 – then I can view the readme, and a list of components which can be downloaded.

Of course they’re not strictly speaking components seeing as some seem to contain others. Maybe. At least, I was able to get Eclipse running without downloading the “RCP Runtime Binary” (RCP = Rich Client Platform) which sounds fairly important, I’m assuming it’s included in the “Platform Runtime Binary”. I could be wrong. In any case an explanation of what each bit actually is wouldn’t be unwelcome.

The readme, incidentally, does contain a chapter 7 which lists bugs fixed between 3.3.1 and 3.3, however this chapter doesn’t appear in the table of contents at the beginning of the document for some unfathomable reason. And there doesn’t seem to be a list of actual changes between the 3.2 and 3.3 series anywhere. I presume there was some reason for calling it 3.3 instead of 3.2.3? (and perhaps a reason also for not displaying the version in the startup splash window anymore?)