Eclipse

1.1 Eclipse and Java Although Eclipse can act as an IDE for many different languages—IDEs are available from C/C++ to Cobol—its great popularity is as a Java IDE, and it comes with Java support built-in. Eclipse refers to itself as a universal tool platform, capable of handling IDEs for many different languages, but the Java IDE that comes with Eclipse is going to be our main focus, as it is for the great majority of Eclipse users. The whole Eclipse magic is that it will take the rough edges off Java development in the way you've always imagined. The errors that would cause javac to stumble are usually handled before you even try to compile, and if there is an issue, Eclipse will suggest solutions. All you have to do is point and click—no need for serious head-scratching. If you're like most Java developers, you're going to find yourself thinking, This is great! 1.1.1 Some Background Eclipse is free for the downloading, like a number of other Java IDEs, but Eclipse has a serious advantage behind it: the power of IBM, which reportedly spent $40 million in the development of the IDE. The first version, Version 1.0, appeared in November 2001 and gradually became popular (although—as with any developer tool—there was a great deal of discussion of its faults). In time, Eclipse has changed and improved, and the current version, 2.1.1, is getting much praise. In fact, it's become so popular that when Version 2.1 first appeared, the servers at http://www.eclipse.org were so busy that it was almost impossible to download a copy for the first few days. Eclipse was created by IBM in a massive effort that has left Java programmers the winners. It's now an open source project, still largely under IBM's development, but part of a software consortium named eclipse.org. You can see the consortium's page, http://www.eclipse.org. Note: Eclipse is a great software but it may make you less efficient in debugging . I use Eclipse.