I've been using Eclipse Classic for developing applications in Java installing plugins as I need. Now I'm thinking to develop an application using Eclipse RCP UI. I've read some tutorials online but they suggest to use Eclipse for RCP/RAP developers.
I've looked at this Eclipse Packages Compare page but I haven't quite figured out why I can't use Eclipse Classic to develop Eclipse RCP applications.
What plugins do I have to install to use Eclipse Classic for Eclipse RCP application development?
There is very little (practical) difference between those two packages. Classic (AKA, Eclipse SDK) includes more source code for the Eclipse bundles themselves, such as JDT and PDE, which can actually be useful when developing your own plugins and RCP apps); RCP/RAP obviously includes RAP, which is critical if you need it but pointless if you don't. RCP also includes EGit (again, nice if you need it) and the XML Tools.
I often start with the SDK (Classic) package and add stuff as I need it. There has even been talk of dropping the RCP package altogether, although it still hangs around.
What plugins do I have to install to use Eclipse Classic for Eclipse RCP application development?
Trust me, you're much better off unziping Eclipse for RCP/RAP developers in a different directory, and using that to develop your RCP application.
You're lucky that adding Eclipse plug-ins to your Eclipse Classic hasn't destroyed your Java development environment.
Related
Eclispse Luna has been just released. I wanted to grab it from the download site. But here comes my problem. Even the Standard and Java Developer versions have features built-in which are not needed for me and just slows down the IDE. For example i do not use Mylin or Plug-in development. These things cannot be deleted from the installation... Is there an Eclipse Luna release which only contains the basic package?
Look at the Eclipse Project downloads
The Eclipse Platform is the smallest (but does not even have Java development).
The Eclipse SDK has Java and Plugin development and the Eclipse source. This is the one I always start from.
I am trying to learn about eclipse plugin development.I downloaded Eclipse IDE for Java EE developers in Helios distribution. I am able to create plugin development project using plugin development wizard. Now the problem is am not able to view the source code of eclipse plugin dependencies.I searched the internet for source attachments, but didn't find it.Any help is appreciated..
If you just want to play around with plug-in development, then you really don't need to integrate the different IDE capabilities, and can probably live with separate Eclipse installations and workspaces.
Actually, the more capabilities/Eclipse editions, you try to integrate, the more limits you set up for other plug-ins/features/capabilities. At some point, it can get impossible to integrate 3rd party capabilities such as those from TaskTop and Atlassian...
If you don't need the Java EE capabilities, consider using either the classic
Eclipse edition or the RCP edition.
For Eclipse plugin development download Eclipse Classic distribution which includes SDK from here.
Eclipse IDE for Java EE description:
Tools for Java developers creating Java EE and Web applications, including a Java IDE, tools for Java EE, JPA, JSF, Mylyn and others.
Eclipse Classic description:
The classic Eclipse download: the Eclipse Platform, Java Development Tools, and Plug-in Development Environment, including source and both user and programmer documentation.
Cheers,
Max
Also, if you want to see the sourcecode of any plugin dependency, you can check it out from CVS at :pserver:anonymous#dev.eclipse.org:/cvsroot/eclipse
Be careful to get the right version, though.
Cheers,
Rob
I've recently downloaded the Eclipse IDE for Java EE developers (for web apps development). Does it make sense to delete my "regular" Eclipse IDE for Java developers? I mean, is there a feature in the regular IDE which isn't included in the EE IDE?
(I also use eclipse for Python programming with the Pydev plugin)
The different "editions" of the eclipse IDE are basically just a different set of plugins on top of the basic eclipse platform. So if anything is missing you can alyways install those plugins when you need them.
Eclipse for Java EE is a superset of Eclipse for Java.
Yes it is a super-set.
Also, have you tried NetBeans? It has better GUI, better javadoc support and it is way cooler to use! (and free)
Not everyone needs the EE tools (mainly WTP - web tools platform); they may only be doing client apps or writing eclipse plugins.
HI all,
I have Eclipse installed with PDT (PHP Development tools).
I want to program in Java and C++, do I have to download whole Eclipse JDT and Eclipse CDT again, and have separate installations, or can I install "plugins" to handle Java and C++ ?
Thanks
Yes you can install the plugins into the same Eclipse installation. For Helios you can use the Update manager Help->Install New Software then select the Helios site and select C/C++ in Programming Lagnuages and so on. If there's something else you need you need to get the update URL and add a new site.
You can have one eclipse with all the plugins (and perspective). But that's tedious:
you'll have to find the plugin jars for each of the 'suites' and place it in the plugins dir. Sometimes they might not have an update site url
some plugins cause problems, sometimes mixing certain plugins cause problems - in short, the more plugins, the more likely your environment will crash
The way I'd suggest is to have a separate eclipse installation for each task. I myself have 3, for different sort of java development (one java, one flex, one for specific project with specific plugins)
Eclipse itself is perfectly stable and capable of supporting quite a lot of plugins. However if you are unlucky to need "crappy" plugins, there the problems being.
What are the differences, specifically, between the Java EE and RCP versions of Eclipse?
And how would one essentially get a "combined" version that includes all the best goodies for plugin development along with the best tools for Java EE?
I think what I'm looking for is the ability to create a "merged" instance entirely through the p2 updater. For example, if I open up a Java EE instance of Eclipse, open a java file, hit alt-shift-f1 to bring up plugin spy, and then click on "compilationuniteditor" to view the source of the java editor, I get .class. But in the RCP version, I get the source. How do I get those things in the Java EE editor using the normal Eclipse update mechanism? That's my goal here. What plugins in update manager contain what "essential bits" for each distribution.
Another example is installing all the Examples plugins. In the RCP distribution, you can easily install them from the "Welcome" page. So how, in the Java EE distribution, could you do the same thing?
The problem I'm trying to solve here is that I want to get away from maintaining two separate instances of Eclipse, since I do a fair amount of work in both RCP (for plugin development) and in Java EE (for webservice stuff, etc).
I started with the Eclipse for RCP Developers and used the "Help > Install New Software..." Feature to add in the "Web, XML, and Java EE Development" tools from the "Galileo" update site.
You may want to be a little choosier than I was and maybe exclude the "Rich Ajax Platform" and possibly the "PHP Development Tools" Features from the category.
It's better to use the "Install New Software" feature than to try and merge directories. The dependencies can be fairly complex and troubleshooting a merged directory can be a nightmare. Let p2 do the heavy lifting.
You can get a full comparison of all eclipse distros here.
Basically, the J2EE one includes the RCP ones, except for the fact that the RCP has the sources of some plugins, and not just their binaries.
To get a mix of the two, load them both, unzip them, and then compare the content of plugins and features sub-directories of both installations (with WinMerge for instance).
Copy any extra RCP files into the J2EE directories, and that should be enough.
From my understanding, the Java EE version comes with plugins for developing java programs whereas the RCP version includes the minimum number of plugins to build a rich client application.
These links should help:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/RCP_FAQ
http://wiki.eclipse.org/index.php/Rich_Client_Platform