Managing projects - IntelliJ IDEA in Action - page 116

The first option allows you to select between absolute and relative paths. If a mod-
ule, library, or other referenced file is located outside the project file's directory,
IDEA uses either the absolute path or the relative path (relative to the project file)
to reference them, depending on which option you've selected in the project's
path options. For files within the project directory, relative paths are always used
to make project files as portable as possible between machines. This setting is also
available on a module-by-module basis, should that become necessary.
The other setting lets you to configure the language level for the project. The
default language level is 1.3, but you can use 1.4 or 1.5. Language level 1.4
enables the assert keyword, introduced in JDK 1.4. By default, Java compilers dis-
able this keyword, because it wasn't a reserved keyword prior to JDK 1.4 and may
cause conflicts with older source code. Similarly, language level 1.5 enables some
of the new JDK 1.5 features, such as the enum keyword and autoboxing. If you alter
the language level, you must restart IDEA in order for the option to take affect.
Configuring compiler settings
The Compiler settings panel lets you control build-related options such as
whether to generate warnings, passing additional parameters to the compiler,
and so forth. The details of the settings configured through this panel will be cov-
ered in chapter 5.
Configuring version control settings
The Ve r s i o n C o n t r o l settings panel lets you integrate your version control system
with your project. Because this is a project-level setting, you're free to use differ-
ent source code control systems for different project or tweak the behavior of each
from project to project. Note that IDEA also maintains a set of global settings for
version control shared from project to project, such as the location of your source
code repository. These settings are also accessed via this panel. Using and config-
uring your version control system with IDEA is covered in chapter 8.
Configuring project code style settings
The Project Code Style settings panel lets you override the code layout and for-
matting styles used for this project. IDEA maintains a detailed set of code format-
ting options that are shared between projects unless overridden through this
panel. The Code Style settings let you specify everything from the size of your
indents to the spacing around method calls and operator symbols. Code style set-
tings are covered in chapter 12.