Purpose of this document

Main goal of this document is to stimulate the use of Eclipse and explain how to install it.

This document describe a user (without root privilege needs) installation of Eclipse for a RHEL4 (Red Hat Enterprise Level 4) Linux distribution. It is quite similar on an other Linux platform.

operating system	version
Linux RH Enterprise 4	kernel 2.6.9-11
program	version
Eclipse	SDK 3.3.0

What is Eclipse

Eclipse is an open source community whose projects are focused on building an extensible development platform, runtimes and application frameworks for building, deploying and managing software across the entire software lifecycle.
Eclipse is not only a Java IDE (Interface Development Environment). The Eclipse community manage and develop around several ten open source projects.

The Eclipse platform is an universal tool platform. It could deal with any type of ressources (text files, Java files, C files, C++ files, Fortran files, Word files, HTML files, Linux shell script files, ...). Specificity of Eclipse concerns its own architecture: all extensions are developed as plug-ins that teach the platform how to work with these different kinds of ressources.

Eclipse uses the EPL (Eclipse Public License).

Why use Eclipse

Did Eclipse is fated to the (software developers of the) astronomy domain ? Most likely for many reasons.

In a general way software projects become more and more elaborated.

Many developers are assigned to write the code.
Ressources of the software must be shared.
Several languages are used to take into account specific software tasks.

Eclipse bring the following advantages.

It is self-supported of all OS (Operating System).
Its platform has integrated a CVS (Concurrent Versions System) component.
It support many languages through adapted plug-ins.

The astronometer community is not exempt of the rule concerning progress of software projects. Especially in the radioastronomy domain researchers and engineers plays with a huge amount of data that comes from antennas. It involves specific software projects with many developers and several languages.

Eclipse is a well-adapted platform to develop projects like the Gildas collection of softwares or the ACS (ALMA Common Software) software infrastructure and so all subsystems of the ALMA software project such as TelCal (Telescope Calibration).

Eclipse can be used freely.

Install a JRE

Eclipse needs a JRE (Java Runtime Environment). If a JRE is already installed on your computer you must verify its compatibility with Eclipse version you will install. Eclipse SDK 3.3.0 is designed to run on a level 5 (1.5.x versions) of Java runtime environment.

[~] > java -version
java version "1.5.0_04"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.5.0_04-b05)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.5.0_04-b05, mixed mode)

If your current version of Java does not match or if you want to install a new version, first download it from the Java runtimes web page. Takes the J2SE JRE for the Linux platform. However if you want to have source for the base class libraries of Eclipse available for debugging you will need the J2SE SDK (Software Development Kit).

Create a ~/usr/local/java directory tree and execute the downloaded binary file. It will take about 60 Mb on your home partition.

[~/usr/local/java] > chmod u+x j2re-1_4_2_13-linux-i586.bin
[~/usr/local/java] > ./j2re-1_4_2_13-linux-i586.bin

Rename the extracted directory j2re1.4.2_13 to the version of JRE and create a link default to this directory (it will be used when many versions of J2RE will be installed).

[~/softs/j2re] > mv j2re1.4.2_13 1.4.2_13
[~/usr/local/java] > ln -s 1.4.2_13 default

Don't forget to add to your PATH environment variable the directory containing the J2RE binaries.

[~] > export PATH=$HOME/usr/local/java/default/bin:$PATH

Install Eclipse

First download the last stable version of Eclipse (take the Eclipse classic package that corresponds to the SDK 3.3.0 version). Create a ~/usr/local/lib/eclipse directory tree and extract files from the Eclipse downloaded archive. It will take about 280 Mb on your home partition.

[~/usr/local/lib/eclipse] > tar -zxvf eclipse-SDK-3.3-linux-gtk.tar.gz

Rename the extracted directory eclipse to the version of Eclipse and create a link default to this directory (it will be useful to manage several versions of Eclipse).

[~/usr/local/lib/eclipse] > mv eclipse SDK-3.3
[~/usr/local/lib/eclipse] > ln -s SDK-3.3 default

Create a symbolic link to the Eclipse binary.

[~/usr/local/bin] > ln -s ../eclipse/default/eclipse

Don't forget to add to your PATH environment variable the directory containing the user local binaries.

[~] > export PATH=$HOME/usr/local/bin:$PATH

Install Eclipse plug-ins

There are two ways to install Eclipse plug-ins. The first and easiest way is to use the Update Manager (Help -> Softwares Updates -> Find and Install...). The second way consists of downloading a zip file and unpack it into appropriate directories of your Eclipse installation.

To develop in C/C++ languages the Eclipse community offer the CDT (Eclipse C/C++ Development Tooling) plug-in. To install it enter the following URL as the remote site in the Update Manager. Follow the link how to install CDT Eclipse plug-in to see its installation step by step and with screenshots.

http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/callisto

For the Python language use the PyDev plug-in. Enter the following URL as the remote site in the Update Manager.

http://pydev.sf.net/updates

For the Fortran language use the Photran plug-in. Its installation is manual.

For the Corba middleware use the ECP (Eclipse Corba) plug-in. To install it enter the following URL as the remote site in the Update Manager.

http://eclipsecorba.sourceforge.net/update

For the Doxygen documentation system use the Eclox plug-in. To install it enter the following URL as the remote site in the Update Manager.

http://download.gna.org/eclox/update

The Callisto Discovery Site allows you to install any of the projects included in the Callisto Release from a single location. It simplifies the plug-in installation process. Below is a listing of all ten projects involved in the Callisto Simuntaneous Release:

Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) Project;
C/C++ IDE (CDT);
Data Tools Platform (DTP);
Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF);
Graphical Editing Framework (GEF);
Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF);
Eclipse Project;
Eclipse Test and Performance Tools Platform Project (TPTP);
Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project (WTP);
Visual Editor (VE).

To install it enter the following URL as the remote site in the Update Manager.

http://download.eclipse.org/callisto/releases

Several plug-ins are available. See the useful links section to get other examples.

Use Eclipse

The first step is to well understand structure of Eclipse windows. You could see the brief description of the Eclipse workbench and follow links for description of perspectives, views, editors, workspaces and projects.

A full help is available via the Eclipse help system.

Useful links

link	comment
Eclipse	Eclipse web site
Eclipse platform	Eclipse platform overview
EPL	Eclipse Public License
JRE	Java Runtime Environment web page
Eclipse download	last stable version of Eclipse
Eclipse help system	online help for Eclipse
Eclipsepedia	Eclipse.org Wiki
CDT plug-in	development of C/C++ code (Eclipse C/C++ Development Tooling)
PyDev plug-in	development of Python code
Photran plug-in	development of Fortran code
Aptana plug-in	development of a web site (for building Ajax applications)
WPT plug-in	development of a web site (Eclipse Web Tools Platform)
ECP plug-in	development using Corba middleware
Checkstyle plug-in	helps the developer to ensure that Java code adheres to a set of coding standards
Eclox plug-in	a simple Doxygen frontend plug-in
Eclipse Callisto	install any of the projects included in the Callisto Release from a single location

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