Screenshot of Eclipse 3.6 |
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| Developer(s) | Free and open source software community |
| Stable release | 3.7.1 Indigo / 23 September 2011 |
| Development status | Active |
| Written in | Java |
| Operating system | Cross-platform: Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, Windows |
| Platform | Java SE, Standard Widget Toolkit |
| Available in | Multilingual |
| Type | Software development |
| License | Eclipse Public License |
| Website | www.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 Java and can be used to develop applications in Java and, by means of various plug-ins, other programming languages including Ada, C, C++, COBOL, Perl, PHP, Python, R, Ruby (including Ruby on Rails framework), Scala, Clojure, Groovy and Scheme. It can also be used to develop packages for the software Mathematica. Development environments include the Eclipse JDT (Java Development Toolkit) for Java, Eclipse CDT for C/C++, and Eclipse PDT for PHP, among others.
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. It was one of the first IDEs to run under GNU Classpath and it runs without issues under IcedTea.
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Eclipse began as an IBM Canada project. Object Technology International (OTI), which had previously marketed the Smalltalk-based VisualAge family of IDE products,[1] developed the new product as a Java-based replacement.[2] In November 2001, a consortium was formed to further the development of Eclipse as open-source software. In January 2004, the Eclipse Foundation was created.[3]
Eclipse 3.0 (released on 21 June 2004) selected the OSGi Service Platform specifications as the runtime architecture.[4]
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).[5] Mike Milinkovich, of the Eclipse Foundation commented that moving to the GPL would be considered when version 3 of the GPL was released.[6]
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.[7]
Since 2006, the Foundation has coordinated an annual Simultaneous Release. Each release includes the Eclipse Platform as well as a number of other Eclipse projects.
So far, each Simultaneous Release has occurred at the end of June.
| Release | Date | Platform version | Projects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indigo | 22 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 3.1 | 28 June 2005 | 3.1 | |
| Eclipse 3.0 | 21 June 2004 | 3.0 [1] |
Eclipse uses plug-ins to provide all functionality within and on top of the runtime system, in contrast to some other applications, in which functionality is hard coded. The runtime system of Eclipse is based on Equinox, an implementation of the OSGi core framework specification.
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,[8] 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. 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 standard Abstract 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.[9]
Eclipse provides the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) for developing general purpose applications. The following components constitute the rich client 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 the user to watch variables and step through the code of an application that is running on the attached server.
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.[10]
The Modeling project contains all the official projects of the Eclipse Foundation focusing on model-based development technologies. They are all 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 EMF based models as an input and produce either a model or text as an output. Model to model transformation projects includes 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 OMG. Acceleo is an open source code generator that can generate any textual language (Java, PHP, Python, etc.) from EMF based models defined with any metamodel (UML, SysML, etc.).
Model Development Tools projects are implementations of modeling standard used in the industry like UML or OCL and their toolkit. Among those projects can be found implementation of the following standard:
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 CDO, EMF query or EMF validation.
Technology and Research projects are prototypes of Modeling project, this project is used to host all the modeling project 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.
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