No Conditional Scriptlet Break-points in JSP File?

[Shawn Severin]

Can you set a condition on a break-point in a JSP file?

When I set a break-point in a Java class, I can go into that break-point's properties and the conditional section (along with the count section) will be present. But when I set a break-point within a scriptlet in a JSP file and then go into that break-point's properties, there is only a section for count and no section for conditional. No matter where in the file I put a break-point, it's the same situation, the conditional section is gone.

Is there a legitimate reason why I cannot set a condition for a break-point in a scriptlet found in a JSP file, or would this appear to be a bug in Eclipse?

[Tim Holloway]

Shawn Severin wrote:
Is there a legitimate reason why I cannot set a condition for a break-point in a scriptlet found in a JSP file, or would this appear to be a bug in Eclipse?

Yes. Because Bear will come over and growl at you not to write scriptlets - they're basically obsolete technology.

Seriously, though, scriptlets are not good practice anymore. And a large reason for that is because they are so hard to debug.

But a larger reason is because they're even harder to maintain. They muddle Model, View, and Controller into a single large messy file that's effectively coded in 2 very different languages (Java and HTML). It drives text editors insane, and the last project I help out with that did this almost drove me insane as well.