Introduction to Eclipse

Overview

Eclipse Background
Obtaining and Installing Eclipse
Creating a Workspaces / Projects
Creating Classes
Compiling and Running Code
Debugging Code
Sampling of Features
Summary

What is Eclipse?
Eclipse started as a proprietary IBM product (IBM Visual
age for Smalltalk/Java)
Embracing the open source model IBM opened the product up

Open Source
It is a general purpose open platform that facilitates and
encourages the development of third party plug-ins

Best known as an Integrated Development Environment

(IDE)
Provides tools for coding, building, running and debugging
applications

Originally designed for Java, now supports many other

languages
Good support for C, C++
Python, PHP, Ruby, etc

Prerequisites for Running Eclipse

Eclipse is written in Java and will thus
need an installed JRE or JDK in which to
execute
JDK recommended

Eclipse on GL
This years coordinated release (known as
Ganymede) of the Eclipse IDE for Java
Developers has been installed on GL
From any of the Linux machines in the labs
simply run the command eclipse

Obtaining Eclipse
Eclipse can be downloaded from
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/
Be sure to grab Eclipse IDE for Java
Developers

Eclipse comes bundled as a zip file

(Windows) or a tarball (all other operating
systems)
Some versions of Linux (i.e. Fedora, Ubuntu)
offer Eclipse in their respective repositories
and can be downloaded using the appropriate
tool (i.e. yum, apt-get)

Installing Eclipse
Simply unwrap the zip file to some
directory where you want to store the
executables
On windows
I typically unwrap the zip file to C:\eclipse\
I then typically create a shortcut on my
desktop to the eclipse executable
C:\eclipse\eclipse.exe

Under Linux
I typically unwrap to /opt/eclipse/

Launching Eclipse
Once you have the environment setup, go ahead
and launch eclipse
You should see the following splash screen

Selecting a Workspace
In Eclipse, all of your code will live under a workspace
A workspace is nothing more than a location where we
will store our source code and where Eclipse will write
out our preferences
Eclipse allows you to have multiple workspaces each
tailored in its own way
Choose a location where you want to store your files,
then click OK

Welcome to Eclipse
The first time you
launch Eclipse, you
will be presented with
a welcome screen
From here you can
access an overview to
the platform, tutorials,
sample code, etc
Click on the arrow on
the right to get to the
actual IDE

Eclipse IDE Components

Perspective Switcher
Menubars
Full drop down menus plus quick
access to common functions

We can switch between

various perspectives
here

Task List Pane

This contains a list of
tasks to complete

Editor Pane
This is where we edit
our source code
Package Explorer Pane

Outline Pane

This is where our projects/

files are listed

This contains a hierarchical

view of a source file
Miscellaneous Pane
Various components can appear in this
pane typically this contains a console
and a list of compiler problems

Creating a New Project

All code in Eclipse needs to live under a project
To create a project: File New Java Project

Creating a New Project (continued)

Enter a name for the
project, then click
Finish

Creating a New Project (continued)

The newly created project should then appear
under the Package Explorer

The src folder

Eclipse automatically creates a folder to store
your source code in called src

Creating a Class
To create a class, simply click on the New
button, then select Class

Creating a Class (continued)

This brings up the new
class wizard
From here you can
specify the following...

Package
Class name
Superclass
Whether or not to include a
main
Etc

Fill in necessary
information then click
Finish to continue

The Created Class

As you can see a number of things have now
happened

Directory structure for

package and actual java file
created automatically

Source is loaded into the

editor pane, already
stubbed out

Source displayed in a
hierarchical fashion listing
each method name

Compiling Source Code

One huge feature of Eclipse is that it
automatically compiles your code in the
background
You no longer need to go to the command prompt
and compile code directly

This means that errors can be corrected when

made
We all know that iterative development is the best
approach to developing code, but going to shell to do
a compile can interrupt the normal course of
development
This prevents going to compile and being surprised
with 100+ errors

Example Compilation Error

This code contains a typo in the println
statement

Packages/Classes
with errors are
marked with a red X

Often Eclipse may have

suggestions on how to fix the
problem if so, a small light
bulb will be displayed next to the
line of offending code

Position in file is
marked with a red
line 1 click allows
you to jump to line
with error
Error underlined with red
squiggly line (just like
spelling errors in many
word processors)

Methods with
errors are marked
with a red X

The Problems tab will contain a

tabular representation of all errors
across all files of all open projects

Example Compilation Error (continued)

When clicking on the light bulb, Eclipse suggests
changing printn to either print or println

Running Code
An easy way to run code is to right click on the
class and select Run As Java Application

Running Code (continued)

The output of running the code can be seen in
the Console tab in the bottom pane

Run Configuration
Advanced options for executing a program can be found
by right clicking the class then clicking Run As Run

Run Configuration (continued)

Here you can
change/add any of
the following:
JVM arguments
Command line
arguments
Classpath settings
Environment
variables
Which JVM to use

Re-Running Code
After you run the code a first time, you can re-run it just
by selecting it from the run drop down menu

Debugging Code
Eclipse comes with a pretty good built-in debugger
You can set break points in your code by double clicking in the left
hand margin break points are represented by these blue bubbles

Debugging Code (continued)

An easy way to enter debug mode is to right click on the
class and select Debug As Java Application

Debugging Code (Continued)

The first time you try to debug code you will be
presented with the following dialog

Eclipse is asking if you want to switch to a perspective

that is more suited for debugging, click Yes
Eclipse has many perspectives based on what you are
doing (by default we get the Java perspective)

Debug Perspective
These buttons allow you
to step through the code

Note new Debug

perspective click Java to
return to normal

Variables in scope are listed here

along with their current values (by right
clicking you can change values of
variables as you program is running)

List of breakpoints

This pane shows the current

line of code we broke on
Current high level location
(class and method)

Output console, just like

in normal run mode

Sampling of Some Other Features

Import organization
Context assist
Javadoc assist
Getter/Setter generation
Add unimplemented methods
Exception handling
Reminders
Local history

Import Organization
Eclipse can automatically include import statements for any classes
you are using, just press Control + Shift + o (letter o)

Import Organization (continued)

If the class is ambiguous (more than one in the
API) then it will ask you to select the correct one

Import Organization (continued)

Import statements automatically included and organized
You can organize imports to clean them up at any time

Context Assist
If you are typing and press a . character and pause a second,
Eclipse will show you a list of all available methods for the class
Prevents having to browse javadocs to see what methods are available
Get context assist at any time by pressing Control + Space

Javadoc Assist
Eclipse can also help generate javadoc comments for you, simply
place the cursor before the method and then type /** then Enter

Javadoc Assist (continued)

Eclipse will automatically generate a javadoc header for the method
all stubbed out with the parameters, return type and exceptions

Getter/Setter Generation
Eclipse can automatically generate getters and
setters for member of a class

Getter/Setter Generation (continued)

To generate getters and setters, right click in the main pane, then
select Source Generate Getters and Setters

Getter/Setter Generation (continued)

Here you can
selectively choose
members for which to
generate getters and
setters

Getter/Setter Generation (continued)

Eclipse will then automatically generate the code
for the getters and setters

Add Unimplemented Methods

Eclipse can also stub out methods that need to be
present as a result of implementing an interface

Add Unimplemented Methods (continued)

You can use the quick fix light bulb to add the
interfaces unimplemented methods to the class

Add Unimplemented Methods (continued)

Again Eclipse will go ahead and stub out the
method for us

Exception Handling
Eclipse will also pickup on unhandled exceptions

Exception Handling (continued)

By clicking on the quick fix light bulb, Eclipse can
suggest what to do to handle the exception

Exception Handling (continued)

Eclipse can automatically add a throws
declaration to the method signature

Exception Handling (continued)

Alternately, Eclipse can also wrap the code
inside a try/catch block

Tasks
Eclipse allows you to insert reminders into your code and
stores them for you to come back and revisit them
Eclipse recognizes
the following tags
inside comments
TODO
FIXME
XXX

You can even add

your own custom
tasks through the
preferences menu

Tasks (continued)
To add a table of all reminders in all of your source code you can
add the Tasks view by clicking on Window Show View Tasks

Tasks (continued)
This neatly displays all tasks in a tabular form

Local History

Eclipse maintains a local history of file revisions which can be accessed by

right clicking on the class, then selecting Compare With Local History

Local History (continued)

Previous saved revisions are displayed in the History pane, double
click a revision to view in the built-in diff viewer

Summary
Benefits
Code completion
Faster code/compile/
run cycles (real time)
Open source (free)
Extensible (plugins)

Disadvantages
Pretty heavyweight
Requires JRE
Learning Curve