Eclipse Mars - one specific file will not open in compare editor?

Question

All of the sudden last week, a single javascript file will no longer open in the compare editor.

• I am running the latest Mars Eclipse
• I am running the latest Subclipse
• I sync with the repo, and see the changed file
• When I double click or choose to compare, I either see a blank white page with "Initializing..." or a blank gray page
• it is ONLY with one specific text .js file ... all other files in the project, and other projects diff just fine.
• the file is 37,880 bytes
• I have deleted the subversion settings files, and they were recreated
• I have checked the preferences and ignore whitespace

It is only this ONE file ... and it is a main file of a node.js project. It used to diff just fine, and all of the sudden last week this one file will no longer diff and throws this exception.

When I look in the log, I see the following exception:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.ui 4 0 2016-04-14 12:38:08.535 !MESSAGE Unhandled event loop exception !STACK 0 org.eclipse.swt.SWTException: Failed to execute runnable (java.lang.IllegalArgumentException) at org.eclipse.swt.SWT.error(SWT.java:4491) at org.eclipse.swt.SWT.error(SWT.java:4406) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Synchronizer.runAsyncMessages(Synchronizer.java:138) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runAsyncMessages(Display.java:4155) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3772) at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine$4.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1127) at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:337) at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1018) at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.E4Workbench.createAndRunUI(E4Workbench.java:156) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$5.run(Workbench.java:694) at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:337) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:606) at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:150) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:139) at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:134) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:104) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:380) at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:235) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:669) at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:608) at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1515)

Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.ASTNode.setSourceRange(ASTNode.java:2490) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.ASTConverter.convertToVariableDeclarationStatement(ASTConverter.java:2696) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.ASTConverter.checkAndAddMultipleLocalDeclaration(ASTConverter.java:319) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.ASTConverter.convert(ASTConverter.java:436) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.ASTConverter.convert(ASTConverter.java:1175) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.JavaScriptUnitResolver.convert(JavaScriptUnitResolver.java:262) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.ASTParser.internalCreateAST(ASTParser.java:887) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.core.dom.ASTParser.createAST(ASTParser.java:647) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.internal.ui.compare.JavaStructureCreator.createStructureComparator(JavaStructureCreator.java:284) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.internal.ui.compare.JavaStructureCreator.createStructureComparator(JavaStructureCreator.java:243) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureCreator.internalCreateStructure(StructureCreator.java:121) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureCreator.access$0(StructureCreator.java:109) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureCreator$1.run(StructureCreator.java:96) at org.eclipse.swt.custom.BusyIndicator.showWhile(BusyIndicator.java:70) at org.eclipse.compare.internal.Utilities.runInUIThread(Utilities.java:859) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureCreator.createStructure(StructureCreator.java:102) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer$StructureInfo.createStructure(StructureDiffViewer.java:155) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer$StructureInfo.refresh(StructureDiffViewer.java:133) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer$StructureInfo.setInput(StructureDiffViewer.java:104) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer.compareInputChanged(StructureDiffViewer.java:342) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer$2.run(StructureDiffViewer.java:74) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer$6.run(StructureDiffViewer.java:322) at org.eclipse.swt.custom.BusyIndicator.showWhile(BusyIndicator.java:70) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer.compareInputChanged(StructureDiffViewer.java:319) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer.compareInputChanged(StructureDiffViewer.java:307) at org.eclipse.wst.jsdt.internal.ui.compare.JavaStructureDiffViewer.compareInputChanged(JavaStructureDiffViewer.java:143) at org.eclipse.compare.structuremergeviewer.StructureDiffViewer.inputChanged(StructureDiffViewer.java:278) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.ContentViewer.setInput(ContentViewer.java:292) at org.eclipse.jface.viewers.StructuredViewer.setInput(StructuredViewer.java:1701) at org.eclipse.compare.CompareViewerSwitchingPane.setInput(CompareViewerSwitchingPane.java:277) at org.eclipse.compare.internal.CompareStructureViewerSwitchingPane.setInput(CompareStructureViewerSwitchingPane.java:132) at org.eclipse.compare.CompareEditorInput.feedInput(CompareEditorInput.java:747) at org.eclipse.compare.CompareEditorInput.createContents(CompareEditorInput.java:555) at org.eclipse.compare.internal.CompareEditor.createCompareControl(CompareEditor.java:462) at org.eclipse.compare.internal.CompareEditor.access$6(CompareEditor.java:422) at org.eclipse.compare.internal.CompareEditor$3.run(CompareEditor.java:378) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.UILockListener.doPendingWork(UILockListener.java:162) at org.eclipse.ui.internal.UISynchronizer$3.run(UISynchronizer.java:154) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.RunnableLock.run(RunnableLock.java:35) at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Synchronizer.runAsyncMessages(Synchronizer.java:135) ... 23 more

Answer 1

I don't have a solution, but I ran into the same problem and found a workaround. I switched off "Open structure compare automatically" in the eclipse preferences under "General" -> "Compare/Patch". Then I was able open the file in the compare editor.

Answer 2

This looks like Eclipse bug 390913 which has been open for some time but doesn't seem to have made any progress.