Tutorial: Installing
Eclipse on your Own Computer
By Jonathon Lundy and Ron
Cytron
Eclipse is an
Integrated Development Environment, or IDE,
which is software that provides all the essential tools you will need for
editing, running, and debugging your Java programs. Eclipse and all of the supporting software is already
installed on CEC computers, but you may also wish to install it on your own
computer, so that you are not limited to working only on CEC boxes. (It’s
free!) Versions of the
software are available for all operating systems.
I. Installing the
Java Development Kit (JDK)
Note: Mac users skip to the last part
of this section.
The
Java Development Kit, or JDK, is
a set of development tools used in the programming of Java applications. The Eclipse IDE requires that a JDK be
locally installed. The JDK can be
downloaded from the web at http://java.sun.com/javase/downloads/index.jsp. Under the header Java
SE Downloads, click the
plain Java button, shown in the green box below, to download most recent update
of JDK 6.
Beware: The CEC computers are configured with JDK 6. You’ll also want to
be using a version of JDK 6, otherwise compatibility
issues may occur
Follow
the instructions for your particular computer and operating system (Windows,
Linux, OS X, etc). Note that you will need administrator
rights to install.
Mac Users: Mac OS X comes pre-installed
with JDK. To ensure that you have
JDK 6 support, download the appropriate updates from http://developer.apple.com/java/,
where you can also read more about Java for Mac.
II. Installing and
Starting Eclipse
Now
that the Java JDK has been installed, we can now download and run the Eclipse
IDE. First, point your browser to http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/. Then, under the Eclipse Packages tab, find the listing for Eclipse IDE for Java Developers. Select your OS and download the appropriate archive file.
When
the download is finished, extract the archive to a new folder for Eclipse in a
place of your choosing (you’ll probably want to put it in whatever folder
applications are usually stored on your OS). No further installation is required. You may wish to create a shortcut to
the Eclipse executable to place on your desktop/dock so you don’t have to find
the folder you installed it to each time you wish to start Eclipse.
Start
Eclipse. (Note that startup can
take a while!) You will be
prompted during startup to select a folder for your workspace, which is where
your Java files are stored locally.
Select a folder (preferably an empty one) to use as your workspace. The default is usually a good
choice. Select Use this as the default and do not ask again
if you don’t want to be asked this question every time on start-up.
Once
Eclipse has started, you’ll be taken to the Welcome tab. Close this tab to go to the default
Eclipse perspective.
III. Installing
the Subversive Plug-in
Subversive
is a plug-in for Eclipse that allows Eclipse to use Subversion (SVN),
which is a version
control system. Use of this
system will make it easy for you to easily move from your own computer to a CEC
computer, work in groups, and electronically submit your work. However, Eclipse does not support SVN
out of the box; a plug-in is required to make it work. Details on how to use SVN with Eclipse
will be explained in another tutorial; here we will merely install it.
First,
open the Help menu of Eclipse and
choose the Install New Software…
option. In the drop down menu,
drag down to the Helios line, which points to the site containing popular
software installs for this (Helios) version of Eclipse. Eclipse will now look for all of the
software packages that are available.
This step can take considerable time and you may see Pending…. or some other such message for a while in the window. Be patient.
Eventually
a list will appear. Next, click on
“Available Software Sites” link next to “Find more software”. This will show you a long list of
sites, with only the ones at the top checked. In the filter at the top of that window, type “subversive”
(without the quotes), which should return a result http://download.eclipse.org/technology/subversive/0.7/update-site. Select that box and click OK
Now
back in the Available software window, you want to expand the Collaboration entry. When that expands, scroll down and
select the Subversion SVN Team Provider entry, and follow the next menus to install this
component into Eclipse. When done,
Eclipse will suggest that you restart the IDE, so please do
that.
After
restart, select Help….Check for updates and follow the instructions to install the update to the
SVN plugin.
When done, Eclipse will suggest that you restart the IDE, so do that once again.
The
very first time you use Eclipse’s SVN explorer, you will be prompted to install
a connector component. This is
necessary, so you might as well do that now. From the top row of Eclipse menu items, choose Window…Open Perspective….Other…SVN
Repository Exploring
This
should trigger Eclipse to prompt you for the SVN connector software. Choose the most recent (highest
revision number) of the SVN Kit choices that are offered to you. These are pure Java components, so they
work with any operating system or platform.
You
should be ready to access your repository. Follow the web site instructions
carefully and get help if you need it.