[JSR308] Wishlist: IDE support for annotations & annotation processors

[Michael Ernst]

What features would you like an IDE to provide, that would make it easier
for you to use annotations and annotation processors?  This applies to both
type annotations and to the older Java 5 annotations.

Background:  The NetBeans team at Sun is working on improving NetBeans'
support for annotations and annotation processors.  NetBeans will soon
support the type annotations syntax (JSR 308).  However, NetBeans does not
have any explicit support for running annotation processors.  We have the
opportunity to provide a wishlist for NetBeans and for other IDEs.

On a related note, Stephan Heiss reports that the tIDE opensource Java IDE
supports the Checker Framework.  I expect him to send an announcement to
this mailing list sometime soon.

Please comment on and extend the below wishlist of IDE features.
Thanks!

                    -Mike


Running an annotation processor:

 * The user can nominate one or more annotation processors to be run, and
   can specify where to find them.  These are run every time that the
   compiler runs (e.g., on every save).

 * The user can easily turn specific annotation processors on and off -- for
   instance, to avoid distraction when in the middle of a breaking change.

Error messages

 * The IDE shows red squiggly lines (or its usual indication of compiler
   errors) when any checking processor has issued warnings/errors.

Keeping annotations consistent

 * When code completion inserts a template for an overriding method, all
   annotations are copied down from the overridden method implementation.
   The user may then edit them if desired.
   (Maybe customize this per-annotation -- some are copied down by default,
   others are not.)

 * The user can click on a class (or a method) and copy all of its
   annotations down to all of its subclasses (or the method implementations
   that override it).  This is useful when annotating a new codebase:
   after adding an annotation on a superclass, you may need to add exactly
   the same annotation to every one of its subclasses.  IDE support for
   this repetitive task would be welcome.

Packages

 * Wrap the Checker Framework as a NetBeans module available from the NetBeans
   update center, to make it easier for users to obtain and use.