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Eclipse

Screenshot of Eclipse 4.2
Developer(s)	Free and open source software community
Stable release	4.2 (Juno) SR2 / 1 March 2013; 2 months ago (2013-03-01)
Development status	Active
Written in	Java[1]
Operating system	Cross-platform: Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, Windows
Platform	Java SE, Standard Widget Toolkit
Available in	Multilingual
Type	Integrated development environment (IDE)
License	Eclipse Public License
Website	www.eclipse.org

In computer programming, Eclipse is a multi-language Integrated development environment (IDE) comprising a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment. It is written mostly in Java. It can be used to develop applications in Java and, by means of various plug-ins, other programming languages including Ada, C, C++, COBOL, Fortran, Haskell, JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, R, Ruby (including Ruby on Rails framework), Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Scheme, and Erlang. It can also be used to develop packages for the software Mathematica. Development environments include the Eclipse Java development tools (JDT) for Java and Scala, Eclipse CDT for C/C++ and Eclipse PDT for PHP, among others.

The initial codebase originated from IBM VisualAge.^[2] The Eclipse software development kit (SDK), which includes the Java development tools, is meant for Java developers. Users can extend its abilities by installing plug-ins written for the Eclipse Platform, such as development toolkits for other programming languages, and can write and contribute their own plug-in modules.

Released under the terms of the Eclipse Public License, Eclipse SDK is free and open source software (although it is incompatible with the GNU General Public License^[3]). It was one of the first IDEs to run under GNU Classpath and it runs without problems under IcedTea.

History [edit]

Eclipse began as an IBM Canada project. Object Technology International (OTI), which had previously marketed the Smalltalk-based VisualAge family of integrated development environment (IDE) products,^[2] developed the new product as a Java-based replacement.^[4] In November 2001, a consortium was formed with a board of stewards to further the development of Eclipse as open-source software. The original members were Borland, IBM, Merant, QNX Software Systems, Rational Software, Red Hat, SuSE, TogetherSoft and WebGain.^[5] The number of stewards increased to over 80 by the end of 2003. In January 2004, the Eclipse Foundation was created.^[6]

Eclipse 3.0 (released on 21 June 2004) selected the OSGi Service Platform specifications as the runtime architecture.^[7]

The Association for Computing Machinery recognized Eclipse with the 2011 ACM Software Systems Award on 26 April 2012.^[8]

Licensing [edit]

The Eclipse Public License (EPL) is the fundamental license under which Eclipse projects are released.^[9] Some projects require dual licensing, for which the Eclipse Distribution License (EDL) is available, although use of this license must be applied for and is considered on a case-by-case basis.

The Eclipse was originally released under the Common Public License, but was later relicensed under the Eclipse Public License. The Free Software Foundation has said that both licenses are free software licenses, but are incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL).^[10] Mike Milinkovich, of the Eclipse Foundation commented that moving to the GPL would be considered when version 3 of the GPL was released.^[11]

Name [edit]

According to Lee Nackman, Chief Technology Officer of IBM's Rational division (originating in 2003) at that time, the name "Eclipse" (dating from at least 2001) was not a wordplay on Sun Microsystems, as the product's primary competition at the time of naming was Microsoft Visual Studio.^[12]

Releases [edit]

Since 2006, the Foundation has coordinated an annual Simultaneous Release. Each release includes the Eclipse Platform as well as a number of other Eclipse projects.

So far, each Simultaneous Release has occurred on the fourth Wednesday of June.

1. ^ There is also a 3.8 release of Eclipse, but it is not promoted anywhere on their web site, directing interested users to 4.2. Eclipse 3.8 provides bugfixes for Indigo & adds Java 7 support, but is not a 'packaged distribution' release, and will not be maintained after 4.3 "Kepler" is released. Features and plugins equivalent to a packaged distribution may be added from within the IDE.

Architecture [edit]

The Eclipse Platform uses plug-ins to provide all functionality within and on top of the runtime system, in contrast to some other applications, in which functionality is hard coded. The Eclipse Platform's runtime system is based on Equinox, an implementation of the OSGi core framework specification.

This plug-in mechanism is a lightweight software componentry framework. In addition to allowing the Eclipse Platform to be extended using other programming languages such as C and Python, the plug-in framework allows the Eclipse Platform to work with typesetting languages like LaTeX,^[13] networking applications such as telnet and database management systems. The plug-in architecture supports writing any desired extension to the environment, such as for configuration management. Java and CVS support is provided in the Eclipse SDK, with support for other version control systems provided by third-party plug-ins.

With the exception of a small run-time kernel, everything in Eclipse is a plug-in. This means that every plug-in developed integrates with Eclipse in exactly the same way as other plug-ins; in this respect, all features are "created equal".^{[citation needed]} Eclipse provides plug-ins for a wide variety of features, some of which are through third parties using both free and commercial models. Examples of plug-ins include a UML plug-in for Sequence and other UML diagrams, a plug-in for DB Explorer, and many others.

The Eclipse SDK includes the Eclipse Java development tools (JDT), offering an IDE with a built-in incremental Java compiler and a full model of the Java source files. This allows for advanced refactoring techniques and code analysis. The IDE also makes use of a workspace, in this case a set of metadata over a flat filespace allowing external file modifications as long as the corresponding workspace "resource" is refreshed afterwards.

Eclipse implements widgets through a widget toolkit for Java called SWT, unlike most Java applications, which use the Java standard Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) or Swing. Eclipse's user interface also uses an intermediate graphical user interface layer called JFace, which simplifies the construction of applications based on SWT.

Language packs developing by the "Babel project" provide translations into over a dozen natural languages.^[14]

Rich Client Platform [edit]

Eclipse provides the Rich Client Platform (RCP) for developing general purpose applications. The following components constitute the rich client platform:

• Equinox OSGi – a standard bundling framework
• Core platform – boot Eclipse, run plug-ins^{[citation needed]}
• Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) – a portable widget toolkit
• JFace – viewer classes to bring model view controller programming to SWT, file buffers, text handling, text editors
• Eclipse Workbench – views, editors, perspectives, wizards

Examples of rich client applications based on Eclipse are:

• Lotus Notes 8
• Novell/NetIQ Designer for Identity Manager
• Apache Directory Studio
• Coverity Build Analysis tool.

Server platform [edit]

Eclipse supports development for Tomcat, GlassFish and many other servers and is often capable of installing the required server (for development) directly from the IDE. It supports remote debugging, allowing the user to watch variables and step through the code of an application that is running on the attached server.

Web Tools Platform [edit]

The Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) project is an extension of the Eclipse platform with tools for developing Web and Java EE applications. It includes source and graphical editors for a variety of languages, wizards and built-in applications to simplify development, and tools and APIs to support deploying, running, and testing apps.^[15]

Modeling Platform [edit]

The Modeling project contains all the official projects of the Eclipse Foundation focusing on model-based development technologies. They are all compatible with the Eclipse Modeling Framework created by IBM. Those projects are separated in several categories: Model Transformation, Model Development Tools, Concrete Syntax Development, Abstract Syntax Development, Technology and Research, and Amalgam.

Model Transformation [edit]

Model Transformation projects uses EMF based models as an input and produce either a model or text as an output. Model to model transformation projects includes ATL, an open source transformation language and toolkit used to transform a given model or to generate a new model from a given EMF model. Model to text transformation projects contains Acceleo, an implementation of MOFM2T, a standard model to text language from the OMG. Acceleo is an open source code generator that can generate any textual language (Java, PHP, Python, etc.) from EMF based models defined with any metamodel (UML, SysML, etc.).

Model Development Tools [edit]

Model Development Tools projects are implementations of modeling standard used in the industry like UML or OCL and their toolkit. Among those projects can be found implementation of the following standard:

• UML
• SysML
• OCL
• BPMN
• IMM
• SBVR
• XSD
• NEDA

Concrete Syntax Development [edit]

The Concrete Syntax Development project contains the Graphical Modeling Framework, an Eclipse based framework dedicated to the graphical representation of EMF based models.

Abstract Syntax Development [edit]

The Abstract Syntax Development project hosts the Eclipse Modeling Framework, core of most of the modeling project of the Eclipse Foundation and the framework available for EMF like CDO, EMF query or EMF validation.

Technology and Research [edit]

Technology and Research projects are prototypes of Modeling project, this project is used to host all the modeling projects of the Eclipse Foundation during their incubation phase.

Amalgam [edit]

Amalgam provides the packaging and integration between all the available modeling tools for the Eclipse package dedicated to modeling tools.

Extensions [edit]

Eclipse supports a rich selection of extensions, adding support for Python via pydev, Android development via Google's ADT, JavaFX support via e(fx)clipse, and many others at the Eclipse Marketplace.

Alternative Distributions [edit]

A number of alternative distributions exist in the Eclipse project.

Eclipse PDT (PHP Development Tools) [edit]

The PHP Development Tools project provides a PHP Development Tools framework for the Eclipse platform. The project encompasses all development components, including code-completion, develop PHP and facilitate extensibility. It leverages the existing Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP)^[16] and Dynamic Languages Toolkit (DLTK).^[17]

See also [edit]

	Free software portal
	Java portal
	Computer programming portal

• Comparison of integrated development environments
• Comparison of integrated development environments for Java
• List of Eclipse-based software
• List of Eclipse projects
• NetBeans

References [edit]

Further reading [edit]

Bibliography [edit]

External links [edit]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Eclipse IDE

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Eclipse

• Official website
• Eclipse Marketplace
• Eclipsepedia
• IBM Rational and Eclipse
• Eclipse 4 RCP Tutorial Tutorial for Eclipse 4