Eclipse

Contents

Eclipse is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) which is primarily designed to assist in Java programming projects. Eclipse is installed on the lab machines, but support from the department extends no further than basic functionality

Eclipse on Linux

Since Java 1.5 is brand new, the only version of Eclipse for it is in beta status. Eclipse on Linux will not start if you are using Java 1.5. If you want to use Eclipse on the Linux machines, you will have to use Java 1.4. To do this, change your PATH to include /usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_04/bin instead of /usr/java/jdk/bin.

Here's an example of the procedure for setting your path to switch from using Java 1.5 to Java 1.4.

Warning

Do not copy this word-for-word!

amcnabb@hemlock:~% echo $PATH
/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/network/bin:/users/admin/amcnabb/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games/bin:/usr/java/jdk/bin:/opt/eclipse
amcnabb@hemlock:~% export PATH=/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/network/bin:/users/admin/amcnabb/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games/bin:/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2_04/bin:/opt/eclipse
amcnabb@hemlock:~%

Here's what happened: We printed the old path, and then set the new path to be exactly the same except with j2sdk1.4.2_04 substituted for jdk. Note that you will have to do this every time you log in or put it in your .bashrc (see the Bash Doc for more details). However, if you put it in your .bashrc, you will eventually have to change it back when Eclipse becomes stable with Java 1.5 and when Java 1.4 is removed from the lab machines.