Eclipse (software)

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Eclipse

Screenshot of Eclipse 3.6

Developer(s) Free and open source software community

Stable release 3.6.2 Helios / 25 February 2011; 15 days

ago

Preview release 3.7M5 / 27 January 2011; 44 days ago

Development Active
status

Written in Java

Operating system Cross-platform: Linux,Mac OS X, Solari

s,Windows
 Platform Java SE, Standard Widget Toolkit

Available in Multilingual

Type Software development

License Eclipse Public License

Website eclipse.org

Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising

an integrated development environment (IDE) and an extensible plug-
in system. It is written mostly in Javaand can be used to develop applications
in Java and, by means of various plug-ins, otherprogramming
languages including Ada, C, C++, COBOL, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby (includin
gRuby on Rails framework), Scala, Clojure, and Scheme. The IDE is often
called Eclipse ADT for Ada, Eclipse CDT for C/C++, Eclipse JDT for Java, and
Eclipse PDT for PHP.
The initial codebase originated from VisualAge.[1] In its default form it is meant
for Java developers, consisting of the Java Development Tools (JDT). Users
can extend its abilities by installing plug-ins written for the Eclipse software
framework, 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 is free and
open source software.
Contents
 [hide]

1 Architecture
2 Rich Client
Platform
3 History
4 Releases
5 See also
 6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links

[edit]Architecture

Eclipse employs plug-ins in order to provide all of its functionality on top of

(and including) the runtime system, in contrast to some other applications
where functionality is typicallyhard coded. The runtime system of Eclipse is
based on Equinox, an OSGi standard compliant implementation.
This plug-in mechanism is a lightweight software componentry framework. In
addition to allowing Eclipse to be extended using other programming
languages such as C and Python, the plug-in framework allows Eclipse to
work with typesetting languages like LaTeX,[2]networking applications such
as telnet, and database management systems. The plug-in architecture
supports writing any desired extension to the environment, such as
forconfiguration management. Java and CVS support is provided in the
Eclipse SDK, withSubversion support 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". 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 standardAbstract Window
Toolkit (AWT) or Swing. Eclipse's user interface also uses an
intermediate GUI layer called JFace, which simplifies the construction of
applications based on SWT.
Language packs provide translations into over a dozen natural languages.[3]
[edit]Rich Client Platform
Eclipse provides the Eclipse 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
 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
[edit]History

Eclipse began as an IBM Canada project. It was developed by Object

Technology International (OTI) as a Java-based replacement for
theSmalltalk based VisualAge family of IDE products,[4] which itself had been
developed by OTI.[1] In November 2001, a consortium was formed to further
the development of Eclipse as open source. In January 2004, the Eclipse
Foundation was created.[5]
Eclipse 3.0 (released on 21 June 2004) selected the OSGi Service Platform
specifications as the runtime architecture.[6]
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).[7] Mike Milinkovich,
of the Eclipse Foundation commented that moving to the GPL would be
considered when version 3 of the GPL was released.[8]
According to Lee Nackman, Chief Technology Officer of IBM's Rational
division at that time and later head of Rational software development and
support, the name "Eclipse" was chosen to target Microsoft's Visual
Studio product, and not Sun Microsystems.[9] Ironically, Nackman is now
himself a Microsoft employee.[10]
[edit]Releases

Since 2006, the Eclipse Foundation has coordinated an annual Simultaneous

Release. Each release includes the Eclipse Platform as well as a number of
other Eclipse projects. Until the Galileo release, releases were named after
the moons of the solar system.[11]
So far, each Simultaneous Release has occurred at the end of June.

Release Date Platform version Projects

Indigo June 2011 3.7 Indigo projects

Helios 23 June 2010 3.6 Helios projects

Galileo 24 June 2009 3.5 Galileo projects

Ganymede 25 June 2008 3.4 Ganymede projects

Europa 29 June 2007 3.3 Europa projects

Callisto 30 June 2006 3.2 Callisto projects

Eclipse
28 June 2005 3.1
3.1

Eclipse
28 June 2004 3.0
3.0

[edit]