We've just created a more complete Getting Started Guide that should hopefully help folks get started with Kotlin; feedback appreciated!
Much better, James. Could you be more specifc on how to answer the "Kotlin runtime" dialog? Clarify that this should point to the lib directory of the Kotlin compiler installation, e.g. "~/kotlinc/lib".
Normally, you just say "OK" in this dialog, because the plugin itself carries a runtime jar in it.
You can specify any directory, kotlin-runtime.jar will be extracted from the plugin.
These last two answers leave me a bit confused. I have to admit I never tried to just press "Ok" without filling in a path in that dialog, but if it's possible to do that, then the dialog should clearly show it.
Or even better, like I said before, just don’t bother the user at all if this can be configured automatically.
Doesn't the dialog fill in the path for you? Is it blank there?
It's always been empty for me (the last time I tried was a few days ago).
How did you install the plugin?
I just tried again, I was wrong: the text field is not empty but it points to some nonexistent directory:
I need to adjust it to point to kotlinc/lib.
I think a simple explanation of what to enter here would suffice: “Type in the location of the root of your Kotlin compiler directory (e.g. “~/kotlinc”)”.
Wait, doesn't just pressing OK in that diealog work for you?
Well... it does. I'm pretty confident this didn't used to work...
So now, the point of this dialog is even more mystifying to me. If IDEA already created this folder in my project and put the Kotlin runtime in it, why is there even a dialog at all?
Actually, this dialog asks you where to _copy_ the library jar. We should definitely change its title.
Oh, ok, that makes a lot more sense!