Software

Here we will show how to prepare the development environment for the lap counter software using Windows; if you use another OS, you can probably adapt the steps according to your needs. It is required that you know how to code in Java and we recommend some knowledge with the Eclipse IDE.

Remember that, when you change our source code, you agree that you are donating to us all authoring rights of your changes: you cannot claim any copyright or intellectual rights over the code or any changes you may create.

Before continuing, make sure you download all required software and they are properly working.

About GIT

GIT is a versioning control very commonly used for software development. We use GIT to help the community collaboration during the development of our project: if you implement a new function or adapt the software to work with new hardware, you can send us back the changes so we can merge them in our official release.

Anything you need to know on how to clone our repository is here, but when you learn more about GIT you can also discover how to use an specific version for editing, send BUG fixes and so on.

To learn more, check Git at Wikipédia or GitHub.

Folders Structure

In our example, we created a folder in C:\gnlc for the project. Inside it, we created a subfolder called git and another called workspace. The git folder holds the project files from the GIT repository, while the workspace folder keeps all local data for the Eclipse IDE.

Cloning the GIT repository

Run the "Git Bash" program and execute the commands below. All comments (following the # symbol) are ignored and you do not need to type them.

cd /c        # go to C:\
mkdir gnlc   # create the folder C:\gnlc
cd gnln      # go to folder C:\gnlc
# the command below will clone the repository into C:\gnlc\git
git clone https://github.com/geralnet/gnlc.git git

# to list all contents of the git folder, use the ls command
ls git

Command sequence to clone the GIT repository.

Configuring the Eclipse IDE

Run Eclipse and follow the steps:

Workspace: C:\gnlc\workspace
Go to Workbench
Choose "File → Import"
Choose "Existing Project into Workspace"
At "Select Root Directory", type C:\gnlc\git\project
You can ignore any messages related to GIT
Suggestion: change "Package Presentation" to "Hierarchical"
Open the file "GNLC → src → net.geral.slotcar.lapcounter → LapCounter.java" and then choose "Run → Run"
The slot car lap counter software should run, now you can code your ideas and test them easily!

$Workspace: <code>C:\gnlc\workspace</code>$

Choose "Existing Project into Workspace"

$At "Select Root Directory", type <code>C:\gnlc\git\project</code>$

Suggestion: change "Package Presentation" to "Hierarchical"

Open the file "GNLC <b>→</b> src <b>→</b> net.geral.slotcar.lapcounter <b>→</b> LapCounter.java" and then choose "Run <b>→</b> Run"

The slot car lap counter software should run, now you can code your ideas and test them easily!

After implementing you big ideas, please send us back some images or post back the source code into the repository.