Classes in Worksheet in Scala-IDE cause error

Question

Just instantiating a class by typing the following into a Worksheet (note, Worksheet, created with File > New > Scala Worksheet, a .sc file, not a normal .scala file) and clicking Save causes a spurious error:

Mouseover:

"Multiple markers at this line - illegal start of simple expression - ';' expected but identifier found."

I doubt something as simple as this could have slipped through testing so maybe it's a configuration issue. I've tried it on 2 machines and get the same behaviour:

1) Windows 7 with Eclipse Helios

2) Windows XP with Eclipse Indigo - clean download from Typesafe website

Any ideas? Do other people get this on their setup?

Aurea

@giladhoch thanks - what operating system are you using? – Aurea

Works for me, too. I am using Win7 64Bit, JDK 1.6.0_31, Scala 2.9.3, Eclipse 3.7.2, Scala-IDE 2.1.0.nightly ! – Anastasio

@Peter that's odd then. The error only appears for me me when I click Save - did you save it and it displayed the result? – Aurea

@LuigiPlinge Yes, I just created a new workspace with one scala project with only one file containing your object WorkSheet, saved, compiled and there is no error message. – Anastasio

After hitting save, I get only the ';' expected error (Win7 64bit, Indigo, Scala 2.9.3) – Knowle

@Keith actually, me too now. Still, good to know it's not just me. – Aurea

Try to add a space between the class Foo line and the new Foo line. – Knowledge

@Knowledge that does not help. – Aurea

Answer 1

This bug was fixed in the Scala compiler, but the fix is not in the version shipped with the milestone release.

If you update to a nightly build of the Scala IDE, you should be able to use this code pattern.

Brashy

Thanks, but I can't get the nightly build running. If I try to install it, I get a bunch of conflicting dependencies: pastebin.com/TL90ReEF. So I tried uninstalling the existing Scala IDE and now Eclipse won't boot at all (IllegalStateException). – Aurea

It looks like a problem with the Typesafe IDE. We're looking into it. – Brashy

Answer 2

During the Martin Odersky lectures on Coursera I noticed that he declares his classes outside the main object in his workbooks.

I hope this helps

object Worksheet {
  new Foo
}

class Foo

Macaw

Yes, great course, just finished assignment 3... but an inner class is a 100% legitimate scala code, so I assume he is doing it for either scoping or to avoid the bug (p.s. I love the shaun the sheep / timmy time avatar) – Dionysius