Has everybody thinking about a local compiler for ABAP?

[Former Member]

Just like PL/SQL Developer for Oracle

[JanStallkamp]

Hi.

When I started with ABAP (some thress years ago) one of my first ideas was: Why not have a small compiler to run on your local PC as with other languages and the use some standard development tools (the new editor is great but I still miss emacs...). But there is one proble with that approach. The concept that ABAP makes so special as a language is the DDIC. A simple concept but in my eyes one of the best ideas SAP has ever had. So a local compiler would need the DDIC too. And that's not too small...

And then you would need some of the basic function modules and classes shiped by SAP. If you put everything together you nearly have a compiler that is close to a local NetWeaver installation. So as others have said that most likely is the way to go if you want to develop on your local PC.

/Jan

[matt]

It would be possible, I guess, to use DEFINES in C, to make it look very ABAP like. Then you could compile it with a C compiler.

Or using tools like lex and yacc, it would be relatively straightforward to build an ABAP compiler. ( I think there are extensions to these that do OO stuff ). You'd also need to have some API for accessing the OS.

But, rather as the power of Java is partly in its libraries, so the power of ABAP is in its environment - DDIC, function modules, classes, dynpro etc.

ABAP as a tool for developing standalone PC apps doesn't seem terribly interesting.

[Former Member]

I read a reply from Reich or Thomas Jung I am not sure. He has mentioned NWDS will have this feature in future. The NWDS will connect to R/3 system in the back ground and you can do the development in NWDS.

Regards,

Jaishankar

[thomas_jung]

>

> I read a reply from Reich or Thomas Jung I am not sure. He has mentioned NWDS will have this feature in future. The NWDS will connect to R/3 system in the back ground and you can do the development in NWDS.
> 
> Regards,
> Jaishankar

There was an Ecplise plug-in for ABAP development shown at TechEd Demo Jam last year. This was just a prototype and nothing has offically been anounced by SAP. This was not a replacement for the current ABAP compiler. The compiler would remain server based. It was more of a replacement for the SAPGUI when doing ABAP development. It replaces the client side tools but the compiler still needs to be called from the server - and the code management is still done server side.

If you want a true local ABAP compiler, you can do this today. It means installing a NetWeaver AS-ABAP stack on your local machine. It really isn't that much different than installing a full JEE on your machine.

Personally this is what I do. I have an ABAP system installed on my local laptop (7.0) and home desktop (7.1). I do almost all of my development on these systems. I then do transports into other servers. I wouldn't necessarily recommend this for every corp. developer out there. You probably want to remain working on the centralized development server so you don't have build and coordination issues. However this approach can be nice for sandbox exploration and prototyping.

[Former Member]

hi, Thomas,

Do you have any document about this issue?

Best regards?

Blake Le

[thomas_jung]

>

> hi, Thomas, 
> 
> Do you have any document about this issue? 
> 
> Best regards? 
> 
> Blake Le

Not sure I understand. What kind of documents are you looking for?

[Former Member]

hi, Thomas,

I want to know where can I download the eclipse plug in. I want to make the same plugin for eclipse and netbean or event Dotnet

[thomas_jung]

As I said - SAP showed a prototype at TechEd Demo Jam last year. There is nothing to download and no offical product anouncement has been made.

[Former Member]

hi, Thomas,

Ok, I see.

Thank you very much.

Then , I'll do this myself.

Best regards,