Welcome to the pocket guide for the Eclipse Integrated Development Environment. This book is the ultimate "no fluff" user's manual for the Eclipse IDE, in particular, its Java Development Toolkit (JDT). This book is designed to get you up and running quickly in the environment even if you've never used Eclipse before. Some Java⢠programming knowledge will be helpful when reading this guide, but even if you're new to Java, you can still find a good deal of useful information within these pages. Let's begin with an overview of what Eclipse is and how to download and install it. If you're already using Eclipse, you can skip this section and jump to Part II.
Eclipse is an IDE for "anything, and nothing at all," meaning that it can be used to develop software in any language, not just Java. It started as a proprietary replacement for Visual Age for Java from IBM, but was open sourced in November 2001. Eclipse is now controlled by an independent nonprofit organization called the Eclipse Foundation. Since 2001, it has been downloaded over 50 million times; it is now being used by thousands of developers worldwide. It also has a sizable following in the university community, where it is used in classes on programming and object-oriented design.
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