Android – How to stop Eclipse from trying to run XML files

androideclipsexml

I'm mostly using Eclipse for Android development these days, and have developed good muscle memory for Ctrl-F11 to run my app. Problem is, if I happen to be editing an XML file (like manifest or layout) when I hit that key combination, Eclipse does something that I find inscrutable… It attempts to "run" my XML file, creating an erroneous output file (called something like layout.out.xml) that I then have to delete, adding a useless XML launch configuration to my history, and generally being a pain in my butt.

It's no big deal, but it is an ongoing annoyance. Does anyone know how to disable "run" for XML in Eclipse? I've tried to find a config item for it, but Eclipse's options are such a rabbit hole that I haven't had any luck there myself.

Thanks!

Best Answer

You can tell Eclipse to launch your latest launch configuration, instead of attempting to create a launch configuration for the current document/selection. Under Preferences -> Run/Debug -> Launching, you can select "Always launch the previously launched application".

EDIT: You probably have a plugin which defines a launch shortcut which triggers on XML-files. This sounds like a pretty dumb thing to do.

Related Solutions

Eclipse – How to get Eclipse to show .* files

In the package explorer, in the upper right corner of the view, there is a little down arrow. Tool tip will say view menu. From that menu, select filters

filters menu

From there, uncheck .* resources.

So Package Explorer -> View Menu -> Filters -> uncheck .* resources.

With Eclipse Kepler and OS X this is a bit different:

Package Explorer -> Customize View -> Filters -> uncheck .* resources

Eclipse – How to you speed up Eclipse

The three most influential factors for Eclipse speed are:

Using the latest version of Eclipse (2020-06 as on 26 June 2020)
Note that David Balažic's comment (July 2014) contradicts that criteria which was working six years ago:

The "same" workspace in Indigo (3.7.2) SR2 loads in 4 seconds, in Kepler SR2 (4.3.2) in 7 seconds and in Luna (4.4.0) in 10 seconds. All are Java EE bundles. Newer versions have more bundled plugins, but still the trend is obvious. (by "same" workspace I mean: same (additionally installed) plugins used, same projects checked out from version control).

Launching it with the latest JDK (Java 14 at the time of writing, which does not prevent you to compile in your Eclipse project with any other JDK you want: 1.4.2, 1.5, 1.6 older...)
```
  -vm jdk1.6.0_10\jre\bin\client\jvm.dll
```
Configuring the eclipse.ini (see this question for a complete eclipse.ini)
```
  -Xms512m
  -Xmx4096m
  [...]
```

The Xmx argument is the amount of memory Eclipse will get (in simple terms). With -Xmx4g, it gets 4 GB of RAM, etc.

Note:

Referring to the jvm.dll has advantages:

Splash screen coming up sooner.
Eclipse.exe in the process list instead of java.exe.
Firewalls: Eclipse wants access to the Internet instead of Java.
Window management branding issues, especially on Windows and Mac.

Dec. 2020, Udo conforms in the comments

From version 4.8 (Photon) an up there was a steady speed gain after each version.
The main platform was optimized every release to load faster, enable more features for the dark theme and to add more features for newer Java versions for the Java development tools.
Especially with-in the last 3 versions the startup time was increased a lot. There should be a significant increase in start-up time with the newest version of Eclipse 2020-12.

In my experience it started a lot faster with each new version.
But: There are still plug-ins which do not follow the new way of using the Eclipse API and are therefore still slow to start.
Since the change to Java 11 as the minimum runtime version starting from Eclipse version 2020-09 at least the core system uses the newer features of the JVM. It is up to the providers of the other plug-ins to upgrade to newer APIs and to use the full power of modern CPUs (e.g. concurrent programming model).

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Eclipse – How to get Eclipse to show .* files

Eclipse – How to you speed up Eclipse

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