On Monday, I started a blog arc that will discuss the “What is Eclipse” talk that I present on occasion. I have delivered this material both standalone and as a context-setting part of a presentation. I’m actually revisiting and revising that presentation as I go through this blogging exercise; I intend to post the updated presentation when I’m through.
As I mentioned on Monday, I tend to start the conversation in most people’s comfort zone: most people have come to terms with the fact that Eclipse is a Java IDE.
Yes. Eclipse is a Java IDE. And it’s a darned good one. Its got lots of bells and whistles. Its refactoring support rocks and I can’t live without Quick Fix and Quick Assist (CTRL-1), and code completion (CTRL-space). The insane power that Eclipse brings to the table when you’re doing top-down or test-first development will make you weep.
Team integration in CVS is best of breed; and support for other version control systems (VCS) is coming along nicely with Subversion and Git easily available through the simultaneous release repository, and other integrations available through Eclipse Marketplace. The new Eclipse Marketplace Client (MPC) will get you up and running with new functionality (including VCS integrations) with only a few clicks.
But Eclipse is more than (just) a Java IDE. Eclipse is… an IDE Framework.
