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Welcome screen of Eclipse 4.9
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| Developer(s) | Eclipse Foundation |
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| Initial release | 1.0 / 7 November 2001 |
| Stable release |
4.10 (2018-12 R)
/ 19 December 2018
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| Repository | |
| Written in | C and Java |
| Operating system | Linux, macOS, Solaris, Windows |
| Platform | Java SE, Standard Widget Toolkit, x86-64 |
| Available in | 44 languages |
List of languages
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| Type | Programming tool, integrated development environment (IDE) |
|---|---|
| License | Eclipse Public |
| Website | www |
Eclipse is an integrated development environment (IDE) used in computer programming, and is the most widely used Java IDE. It contains a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment. Eclipse is written mostly in Java and its primary use is for developing Java applications, but it may also be used to develop applications in other programming languages via plug-ins, including Ada, ABAP, C, C++, C#, Clojure, COBOL, D, Erlang, Fortran, Groovy, Haskell, JavaScript, Julia, Lasso, Lua, NATURAL, Perl, PHP, Prolog, Python, R, Ruby (including Ruby on Rails framework), Rust, Scala, and Scheme. It can also be used to develop documents with LaTeX (via a TeXlipse plug-in) and 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 code base originated from IBM VisualAge. 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. Since the introduction of the OSGi implementation (Equinox) in version 3 of Eclipse, plug-ins can be plugged-stopped dynamically and are termed (OSGI) bundles
Eclipse software development kit (SDK) is free and open-source software, released under the terms of the Eclipse Public License, although it is incompatible with the GNU General Public License.[10] It was one of the first IDEs to run under GNU Classpath and it runs without problems under IcedTea.
History
Eclipse was inspired by the Smalltalk-based VisualAge family of integrated development environment (IDE) products. Although fairly successful, a major drawback of the VisualAge products was that developed code was not in a component-based software engineering
model. Instead, all code for a project was held in a compressed lump
(somewhat like a zip file but in a proprietary format called .dat).
Individual classes could not be easily accessed, certainly not outside
the tool. A team primarily at the IBM Cary NC lab developed the new
product as a Java-based replacement.
In November 2001, a consortium was formed with a board of stewards to further the development of Eclipse as open-source software. It is estimated that IBM had already invested nearly $40 million by that time. The original members were Borland, IBM, Merant, QNX Software Systems, Rational Software, Red Hat, SuSE, TogetherSoft, and WebGain. The number of stewards increased to over 80 by the end of 2003. In January 2004, the Eclipse Foundation was created.
Eclipse 3.0 (released on 21 June 2004) selected the OSGi Service Platform specifications as the runtime architecture.
The Association for Computing Machinery recognized Eclipse with the 2011 ACM Software Systems Award on 26 April 2012.
Licensing
The Eclipse Public License (EPL) is the fundamental license under which Eclipse projects are released.
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.
Eclipse was originally released under the Common Public License, but was later re-licensed 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).
Name
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, which Eclipse was to eclipse.
Different versions of Eclipse have been given different science-related names. The versions named after Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede, which are moons of Jupiter, were followed by a version named after Galileo the discoverer of those moons. These were followed by two sun-themed names, Helios of Greek mythology, and Indigo, one of the seven colors of a rainbow (which is produced by the sun). The version after that, Juno, has a triple meaning: a Roman mythological figure, an asteroid, and a spacecraft to Jupiter. Kepler, Luna, and Mars continued the astronomy theme, and then Neon and Oxygen constitutes a theme of chemical elements. Photon represents a return to sun-themed names.
Releases
Since 2006 the Foundation has coordinated an annual Simultaneous Release. Each release includes the Eclipse Platform and several other Eclipse projects.
As of 2008, each Simultaneous Release has occurred on the 4th Wednesday of June.
| Version name | Date | Platform version | Projects | Main changes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | 21 June 2004 | 3.0 |
|
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| N/A | 28 June 2005 | 3.1 |
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Added Java 5 support: generics, annotations, boxing-unboxing, enums, enhanced for loop, varargs, static imports |
| Callisto | 30 June 2006 | 3.2 | Callisto projects |
|
| Europa | 29 June 2007 | 3.3 | Europa projects |
|
| Ganymede | 25 June 2008 | 3.4 | Ganymede projects |
|
| Galileo | 24 June 2009 | 3.5 | Galileo projects |
|
| Helios | 23 June 2010 | 3.6 | Helios projects |
|
| Indigo | 22 June 2011 | 3.7 | Indigo projects | Added Java 7 support (3.7.1 sr1): Improved Type Inference for Generic Instance Creation (Diamond), Multi-catch, try-with-resources statement, Simplified Varargs Method Invocation, Strings in switch, Binary Literals and Underscores in Numeric Literals, Polymorphic Methods |
| Juno | 27 June 2012 | 3.8 and 4.2
|
Juno projects |
|
| Kepler | 26 June 2013 | 4.3 | Kepler projects |
|
| Luna | 25 June 2014 | 4.4 | Luna projects | Integrated Java 8 support; in the prior version, this was possible via a Java 8 patch plug-in |
| Mars | 24 June 2015 | 4.5 | Mars projects |
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| Neon | 22 June 2016 | 4.6 | Neon projects |
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| Oxygen | 28 June 2017 | 4.7 | Oxygen projects | Oxygen.1a introduced Java 9 and Junit 5 support and Oxygen.3a introduced Java 10 support. |
| Photon | 27 June 2018 | 4.8 | Photon projects |
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| 2018-09 | 19 September 2018 | 4.9 | 2018-09 projects |
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| 2018-12 | 19 December 2018 | 4.10 | 2018-12 projects |
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| 2019-03 | 20 March 2019 | 4.11 | 2019-03 projects |
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| 2019-06 | 19 June 2019 | 4.12 | 2019-06 projects |
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Old version
Older version, still supported
Latest version
Future release
There
is a 3.8 release of Eclipse Juno; it is not promoted on the main
downloads page, but a packaged distribution is available for download. Eclipse 3.8 provides bugfixes for Indigo & adds Java 7 support, and its maintenance was dual streamed with 4.2. Features and plug-ins equivalent to a packaged distribution may be added from within the IDE.
Architecture
Eclipse
uses plug-ins to provide all the functionality within and on top of the
run-time system. Its run-time system is based on Equinox, an implementation of the OSGi core framework specification.
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 and 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. Thus, every plug-in developed integrates with
Eclipse in 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 from third parties using both free and commercial models. Examples
of plug-ins include for Unified Modeling Language (UML), for Sequence and other UML diagrams, a plug-in for DB Explorer, and many more.
The Eclipse SDK includes the Eclipse Java development tools (JDT), offering an IDE with a built-in Java incremental 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 file space allowing external file modifications as long as the corresponding workspace resource is refreshed afterward.
Eclipse implements the graphical control elements of the Java toolkit called Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT), whereas most Java applications 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. Eclipse was made to run on Wayland during a Google Summer of Code (GSoC) Project in 2014.
As of 2017, language packs being developed by the Babel Project provide translations into over 40 natural languages.
Rich Client Platform
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
- 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:
- IBM Notes 8 and 9
- Attachmate-Novell NetIQ Designer for Identity Manager
- Apache Directory Studio
- Remote Component Environment
- DBeaver
Server platform
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 a user to watch variables and step through the code
of an application that is running on the attached server.
Web Tools Platform
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.
Modeling platform
The
Modeling project contains all the official projects of the Eclipse
Foundation focusing on model-based development technologies. All are
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 projects uses Eclipse Modeling Framework
(EMF) based models as an input and produce either a model or text as an
output. Model to model transformation projects includes ATLAS Transformation Language
(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 Object Management Group (OMG). The Acceleo code generator can generate any textual language (Java, PHP, Python, etc.) from EMF based models defined with any meta-model (Unified Modeling Language (UML), Systems Modeling Language (SysML), etc.). It is open-source.
Model Development Tools projects are implementations of various
modeling standards used in the industry, and their toolkits. Among those
projects can be found implementations of several standards:
- Unified Modeling Language (UML)
- Systems Modeling Language (SysML)
- Object Constraint Language (OCL)
- Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)
- Interactive Media Manager (IMM)
- Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR)
- XML Schema (XSD)
- National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA)
The Concrete Syntax Development project contains the Graphical
Modeling Framework, an Eclipse-based framework dedicated to the
graphical representation of EMF based models.
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 Connected Data Objects (CDO), EMF query or EMF validation.
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 provides the packaging and integration between all the
available modeling tools for the Eclipse package dedicated to modeling
tools.
Extensions
Eclipse supports a rich selection of extensions, adding support for Python via pydev, Android development via Google's ADT, JavaFX via e(fx)clipse, JavaScript, jQuery, and many others at the Eclipse Marketplace. Valable is a Vala plug-in for Eclipse.
Alternative distributions
Several alternative distributions exist in the Eclipse project.
PHP Development Tools
The PHP Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) Development Tools project
provides a 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) and Dynamic Languages Toolkit (DLTK).
Android Development Tools
Android
Development Tools (ADT) is a discontinued Google-provided plug-in for
the Eclipse IDE that is designed to provide an integrated environment in
which to build Android applications. ADT extends the abilities of
Eclipse to let developers set up new Android projects, create an
application UI, add packages based on the Android Framework API, debug
their applications using the Android SDK tools, and export signed (or
unsigned) .apk files in order to distribute their applications. It is
freely available to download. It was the official IDE for Android but
was replaced by Android Studio (based on IntelliJ IDEA Community Edition). ADT is officially deprecated since the end of 2015, and now Google is focused on Android Studio as the official Android IDE. The Android Device Monitor that shipped with ADT was built on the Eclipse Platform. This tool still ships with Android Studio.
