Eclipse IDE

What is Eclipse?

Eclipse is a versatile editor for programmers of many languages. It is available freely to all who choose to use it. It runs on Java in multiple operating systems. It supports many different programming languages through different plug-ins. There is a tremendous user base that keeps on making Eclipse better and better.

I've used many text editors and Integrated Development Environments. I am happiest when I am using Eclipse. I appreciate the usefulness of other editors like VI for Linux and Crimson Editor or UltraEdit for Windows. Eclipse gives me so many ways to get things done.

Why use Eclipse?

It sounds like a cliche, but one of the reasons I use Eclipse is because I like to NOT use Microsoft products. I have turned down jobs where I would be working with .Net because I personally don't like the code that is generated by Visual Studio. If you do, cool. I don't.

If George Bailey was trying to convince people to use Eclipse he would probably say:

This town needs this measly one-horse institution if only to have some place where people can come without crawling to Potter.

I may have used a bad reason out of the gate, but I know a lot of people who are proud of the things that they don't do, and not using Visual Studio and .Net makes me proud. If you do, cool.

The plug-ins are a great reason to use Eclipse. If you are a PHP developer, you can use Eclipse. If you are a ColdFusion developer, you can use Eclipse. If you are a Perl developer, you can use Eclipse. There is a tremendous marketplace of mostly free plug-ins to tailor Eclipse to your needs!

Is the Eclipse IDE safe?

The system requirements for running Eclipse are pretty low. I think it is definitely safe.

Can I use Eclipse as an FTP Editor?

Heck yeah! That may be the easiest way to get started with Eclipse quite quickly!

In fact, I installed Eclipse on a machine tonight just to create this page. Here are the steps that I install Eclipse to access and create pages using FTP and Remote Systems Explorer!

  1. Go to www.eclipse.org and then go to the Downloads section. You can access downloads by clicking the Downloads option on the menu. I download the Classice Eclipse IDE. It is usually found at the very bottom of the Downloads list for Eclipse.
  2. It's a big download. The last I saw it was about 173 meg. All a big zip file. Wait for it.
  3. I like to create a tools folder right off of the root of C:\. I then create an eclipse folder in tools. Then a create the version folder under the eclipse folder. It sounds worse than it is. I extract the contents of the zip to C:\tools\folder\indigo so that eclipse.exe sits in indigo.
  4. I knew I needed java. I used firefox to search google for 'get java' and then downloaded the latest version for my OS. As soon as it was installed I started Eclipse.
  5. I clicked Workbench in the top right and end up at the standard IDE.
  6. Under help, I click Install New Software, then under Available Sites, I click the version plugins which in this case was Indigo.
  7. Because I knew I would be doing simple page editing, not ColdFusion or PHP, I select to install Web Page Tools, or Web Tools, or Web Developer Tools under General. That's where they were this time.
  8. The next thing I do after that installs is go back to the Install New Software option, under the Indigo section, and filter on the text 'Remote'. Then I installed just the one Remote Systems Explorer and connect to my FTP site.
  9. That was all it took!

 

 

 

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