Eclipse is an
integrated development environment
An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools ...
(IDE) used in
computer programming
Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...
. It contains a base
workspace
Workspace is a term used in various branches of engineering and economic development.
Business development
Workspace refers to small premises provided, often by local authorities or economic development agencies, to help new businesses to estab ...
and an extensible
plug-in system for customizing the environment. It is the second-most-popular IDE for
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
development, and, until 2016, was the most popular. 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 language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
s via plug-ins, including
Ada
Ada may refer to:
Places
Africa
* Ada Foah, a town in Ghana
* Ada (Ghana parliament constituency)
* Ada, Osun, a town in Nigeria
Asia
* Ada, Urmia, a village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran
* Ada, Karaman, a village in Karaman Province, ...
,
ABAP
ABAP (Advanced Business Application Programming, originally ''Allgemeiner Berichts-Aufbereitungs-Prozessor'', German for "general report preparation processor") is a high-level programming language created by the German software company SAP SE. ...
,
C,
C++
C++ (pronounced "C plus plus") is a high-level general-purpose programming language created by Danish computer scientist Bjarne Stroustrup as an extension of the C programming language, or "C with Classes". The language has expanded significan ...
,
C#,
Clojure
Clojure (, like ''closure'') is a dynamic and functional dialect of the Lisp programming language on the Java platform. Like other Lisp dialects, Clojure treats code as data and has a Lisp macro system. The current development process is comm ...
,
COBOL,
D,
Erlang,
Fortran,
Groovy
''Groovy'' (or, less commonly, ''groovie'' or ''groovey'') is a slang colloquialism popular during the 1950s, '60s and '70s. It is roughly synonymous with words such as "excellent", "fashionable", or "amazing", depending on context.
History
The ...
,
Haskell
Haskell () is a general-purpose, statically-typed, purely functional programming language with type inference and lazy evaluation. Designed for teaching, research and industrial applications, Haskell has pioneered a number of programming lan ...
,
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
,
Julia
Julia is usually a feminine given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julio and Julius. (For further details on etymology, see the Wiktionary entry "Julius".) The given name ''Julia'' had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g ...
,
Lasso
A lasso ( or ), also called lariat, riata, or reata (all from Castilian, la reata 're-tied rope'), is a loop of rope designed as a restraint to be thrown around a target and tightened when pulled. It is a well-known tool of the Spanish an ...
,
Lua
Lua or LUA may refer to:
Science and technology
* Lua (programming language)
* Latvia University of Agriculture
* Last universal ancestor, in evolution
Ethnicity and language
* Lua people, of Laos
* Lawa people, of Thailand sometimes referred t ...
,
NATURAL
Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...
,
Perl
Perl is a family of two high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming languages. "Perl" refers to Perl 5, but from 2000 to 2019 it also referred to its redesigned "sister language", Perl 6, before the latter's name was offic ...
,
PHP
PHP is a general-purpose scripting language geared toward web development. It was originally created by Danish-Canadian programmer Rasmus Lerdorf in 1993 and released in 1995. The PHP reference implementation is now produced by The PHP Group. ...
,
Prolog
Prolog is a logic programming language associated with artificial intelligence and computational linguistics.
Prolog has its roots in first-order logic, a formal logic, and unlike many other programming languages, Prolog is intended primarily ...
,
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (pro ...
,
R,
Ruby
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called ...
(including
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails (simplified as Rails) is a server-side web application framework written in Ruby under the MIT License. Rails is a model–view–controller (MVC) framework, providing default structures for a database, a web service, and we ...
framework),
Rust
Rust is an iron oxide, a usually reddish-brown oxide formed by the reaction of iron and oxygen in the catalytic presence of water or air moisture. Rust consists of hydrous iron(III) oxides (Fe2O3·nH2O) and iron(III) oxide-hydroxide (FeO( ...
,
Scala, and
Scheme. It can also be used to develop documents with
LaTeX
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
(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
codebase
In software development, a codebase (or code base) is a collection of source code used to build a particular software system, application, or software component. Typically, a codebase includes only human-written source code files; thus, a codeb ...
originated from
IBM VisualAge
VisualAge is a family of computer integrated development environments from IBM, which supports multiple programming languages. VisualAge was first released in October 1993 and was discontinued April 30, 2007 and its web page removed in September ...
.
The Eclipse
software development kit
A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific ...
(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
OSGi is an open specification and open source project under the Eclipse Foundation. It is a continuation of the work done by the OSGi Alliance (formerly known as the Open Services Gateway initiative), which was an open standards organization fo ...
implementation (
Equinox
A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...
) in version 3 of Eclipse, plug-ins can be plugged-stopped dynamically and are termed (OSGI) bundles.
Eclipse
software development kit
A software development kit (SDK) is a collection of software development tools in one installable package. They facilitate the creation of applications by having a compiler, debugger and sometimes a software framework. They are normally specific ...
(SDK) is
free and open-source software, released under the terms of the
Eclipse Public License
The Eclipse Public License (EPL) is a free and open source software license most notably used for the Eclipse IDE and other projects by the Eclipse Foundation. It replaces the Common Public License (CPL) and removes certain terms relating to ...
, although it is incompatible with the
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
. It was one of the first IDEs to run under
GNU Classpath
GNU Classpath is a free software implementation of the standard class library for the Java programming language. Most classes from J2SE 1.4 and 5.0 are implemented. Classpath can thus be used to run Java-based applications. GNU Classpath is a p ...
and it runs without problems under
IcedTea.
History
Eclipse was inspired by the
Smalltalk-based
VisualAge
VisualAge is a family of computer integrated development environments from IBM, which supports multiple programming languages. VisualAge was first released in October 1993 and was discontinued April 30, 2007 and its web page removed in September ...
family of
integrated development environment
An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of at least a source code editor, build automation tools ...
(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 database using
SCID techniques (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
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. Op ...
. 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
Rational Machines is an enterprise founded by Paul Levy and Mike Devlin in 1981 to provide tools to expand the use of modern software engineering practices, particularly explicit modular architecture and iterative development. It changed its ...
,
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
The Eclipse Foundation AISBL is an independent, Europe-based not-for-profit corporation that acts as a steward of the Eclipse open source software development community, with legal jurisdiction in the European Union. It is an organization suppo ...
was created.
Eclipse 3.0 (released on 21 June 2004) selected the
OSGi
OSGi is an open specification and open source project under the Eclipse Foundation. It is a continuation of the work done by the OSGi Alliance (formerly known as the Open Services Gateway initiative), which was an open standards organization fo ...
Service Platform specifications as the runtime architecture.
The
Association for Computing Machinery recognized Eclipse with the 2011
ACM Software Systems Award
The ACM Software System Award is an annual award that honors people or an organization "for developing a software system that has had a lasting influence, reflected in contributions to concepts, in commercial acceptance, or both". It is awarded b ...
on 26 April 2012.
Licensing
The
Eclipse Public License
The Eclipse Public License (EPL) is a free and open source software license most notably used for the Eclipse IDE and other projects by the Eclipse Foundation. It replaces the Common Public License (CPL) and removes certain terms relating to ...
(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
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded by Richard Stallman on October 4, 1985, to support the free software movement, with the organization's preference for software being distributed under copyleft (" ...
has said that both licenses are
free software
Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
licenses, but are incompatible with the
GNU General Public License
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was the first copyleft for general ...
(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 Callisto most commonly refers to:
*Callisto (mythology), a nymph
*Callisto (moon), a moon of Jupiter
Callisto may also refer to:
Art and entertainment
*''Callisto series'', a sequence of novels by Lin Carter
*''Callisto'', a novel by Torsten Kro ...
,
Europa, and
Ganymede, which are moons of
Jupiter
Jupiter is the fifth planet from the Sun and the largest in the Solar System. It is a gas giant with a mass more than two and a half times that of all the other planets in the Solar System combined, but slightly less than one-thousandth t ...
, 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
Indigo is a deep color close to the color wheel blue (a primary color in the RGB color space), as well as to some variants of ultramarine, based on the ancient dye of the same name. The word "indigo" comes from the Latin word ''indicum'', m ...
, 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
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws o ...
,
Luna
Luna commonly refers to:
* Earth's Moon, named "Luna" in Latin
* Luna (goddess), the ancient Roman personification of the Moon
Luna may also refer to:
Places Philippines
* Luna, Apayao
* Luna, Isabela
* Luna, La Union
* Luna, San Jose
Roma ...
, and
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
continued the astronomy theme, and then
Neon and
Oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as ...
constituted a theme of
chemical elements.
Photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they a ...
represented a return to sun-themed names.
, the alphabetic scheme was abandoned in order to better align with the new Simultaneous Release strategy. Releases are named in the format YYYY-MM to reflect the quarterly releases, starting with version 4.9 named 2018-09.
Releases
Since 2006, the Foundation has coordinated an annual ''Simultaneous Release''.
Each release includes the Eclipse Platform and several other Eclipse projects.
From 2008 through 2018, each Simultaneous Release had occurred on the 4th Wednesday of June. In 2018 the project switched to quarterly (13 week) YYYY-MM releases without intermediate service releases.
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
A solar equinox is a moment in time when the Sun crosses the Earth's equator, which is to say, appears directly above the equator, rather than north or south of the equator. On the day of the equinox, the Sun appears to rise "due east" and se ...
, an implementation of the
OSGi
OSGi is an open specification and open source project under the Eclipse Foundation. It is a continuation of the work done by the OSGi Alliance (formerly known as the Open Services Gateway initiative), which was an open standards organization fo ...
core framework specification.
In addition to allowing the Eclipse Platform to be extended using other
programming language
A programming language is a system of notation for writing computer programs. Most programming languages are text-based formal languages, but they may also be graphical. They are a kind of computer language.
The description of a programming ...
s, such as
C and
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (pro ...
, the plug-in framework allows the Eclipse Platform to work with typesetting languages like
LaTeX
Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well.
In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...
and networking applications such as
telnet
Telnet is an application protocol used on the Internet or local area network to provide a bidirectional interactive text-oriented communication facility using a virtual terminal connection. User data is interspersed in-band with Telnet contr ...
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 system
In software engineering, version control (also known as revision control, source control, or source code management) is a class of systems responsible for managing changes to computer programs, documents, large web sites, or other collections o ...
s 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
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.
The creation of UML was originally m ...
(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
An incremental compiler is a kind of incremental computation applied to the field of compilation. Quite naturally, whereas ordinary compilers make a so-called clean build, that is, (re)build all program modules, an incremental compiler recompiles ...
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 afterward.
Eclipse implements the
graphical control elements of the Java toolkit called
Standard Widget Toolkit
The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is a graphical widget toolkit for use with the Java platform. It was originally developed by Stephen Northover at IBM and is now maintained by the Eclipse Foundation in tandem with the Eclipse IDE. It is an alter ...
(SWT), whereas most Java applications use the Java standard
Abstract Window Toolkit
The Abstract Window Toolkit (AWT) is Java's original platform-dependent windowing, graphics, and user-interface widget toolkit, preceding Swing. The AWT is part of the Java Foundation Classes (JFC) — the standard API for providing a graphi ...
(AWT) or
Swing. Eclipse's
user interface
In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine f ...
also uses an intermediate
graphical user interface
The GUI ( "UI" by itself is still usually pronounced . or ), graphical user interface, is a form of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices through graphical icons and audio indicator such as primary notation, inst ...
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
The Google Summer of Code, often abbreviated to GSoC, is an international annual program in which Google awards stipends to contributors who successfully complete a free and open-source software coding project during the summer. , the program is ...
(GSoC) Project in 2014.
, language packs being developed by the ''Babel Project'' provide translations into over 40
natural languages.
Rich client platform
Eclipse provides the
rich client platform The rich client platform (RCP) is a programmer tool that makes it easier to integrate independent software components, where most of the data processing occurs on the client side.
Overview
RCP is a software consisting of the following components ...
(RCP) for developing general-purpose applications.
The following components constitute the rich client platform:
*
Equinox OSGi
In computing, Equinox is a sub-project of the Eclipse project that provides a certified implementation of the OSGi R4.x core framework specification. It is a module runtime that allows developers to implement an application as a set of "bundles" ...
– a standard bundling framework
* Core platform – boot Eclipse, run
plug-ins
*
Standard Widget Toolkit
The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) is a graphical widget toolkit for use with the Java platform. It was originally developed by Stephen Northover at IBM and is now maintained by the Eclipse Foundation in tandem with the Eclipse IDE. It is an alter ...
(SWT) – a portable
widget toolkit
A widget toolkit, widget library, GUI toolkit, or UX library is a library or a collection of libraries containing a set of graphical control elements (called ''widgets'') used to construct the graphical user interface (GUI) of programs.
Most widge ...
*
JFace – viewer classes to bring
model view controller
A model is an informative representation of an object, person or system. The term originally denoted the plans of a building in late 16th-century English, and derived via French and Italian ultimately from Latin ''modulus'', a measure.
Models c ...
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
HCL Notes (formerly IBM Notes and Lotus Notes; see Branding below) and HCL Domino (formerly IBM Domino and Lotus Domino) are the client and server, respectively, of a collaborative client-server software platform formerly sold by IBM, now by HC ...
8 and 9
* Attachmate-Novell
NetIQ
NetIQ is a product line within the CyberRes line of business at Micro Focus, which includes solutions focused on cybersecurity, including ArcSight, Fortify, Voltage, and NetIQ.
NetIQ was previously based in Houston, Texas, with products that pr ...
Designer for Identity Manager
*
Apache Directory Studio
*
Remote Component Environment
*
DBeaver
DBeaver is a SQL client software application and a database administration tool. For relational databases it uses the JDBC application programming interface (API) to interact with databases via a JDBC driver. For other databases ( NoSQL) it u ...
, a SQL client software
* Portfolio Performance
*
UDig, a GIS software
*
AnyLogic, a multimethod simulation modeling tool
Server platform
Eclipse supports development for
Tomcat
Tomcat may refer to:
Animals
* A sexually mature male cat
* Paederus, known as in Indonesia
Science and technology
* Apache Tomcat, an implementation of Java web-server technologies
* Beretta 3032 Tomcat, a pistol
* Grumman F-14 Tomcat, a f ...
,
GlassFish
GlassFish is an open-source Jakarta EE platform application server project started by Sun Microsystems, then sponsored by Oracle Corporation, and now living at the Eclipse Foundation and supported by Payara, Oracle and Red Hat. The supported v ...
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
Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF) is an Eclipse-based modeling framework and code generation facility for building tools and other applications based on a structured data model.
From a model specification described in XML Metadata Interchange ...
(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 (ATLAS Transformation Language) is a model transformation language and toolkit developed and maintained by OBEO and AtlanMod. It was initiated by the AtlanMod team (previously called ATLAS Group). In the field of Model-Driven Engineering (M ...
(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
Acceleo is an open-source code generator from the Eclipse Foundation that allows people to use a model-driven approach to building applications. It is an implementation of the " MOFM2T" standard, from the Object Management Group (OMG), for perfo ...
, an implementation of
MOFM2T, a standard model to text language from the
Object Management Group
The Object Management Group (OMG) is a computer industry standards consortium. OMG Task Forces develop enterprise integration standards for a range of technologies.
Business activities
The goal of the OMG was a common portable and interoperab ...
(OMG). The Acceleo
code generator In computing, Code generation denotes software techniques or systems that generate program code which may then be used independently of the generator system in a runtime environment.
Specific articles:
* Code generation (compiler), a mechanism to pr ...
can generate any textual language (Java, PHP, Python, etc.) from EMF based models defined with any metamodel (
Unified Modeling Language
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.
The creation of UML was originally m ...
(UML),
Systems Modeling Language
The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is a general-purpose modeling language for systems engineering applications. It supports the specification, analysis, design, verification and validation of a broad range of systems and systems-of-systems.
S ...
(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
The Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a general-purpose, developmental modeling language in the field of software engineering that is intended to provide a standard way to visualize the design of a system.
The creation of UML was originally m ...
(UML)
*
Systems Modeling Language
The Systems Modeling Language (SysML) is a general-purpose modeling language for systems engineering applications. It supports the specification, analysis, design, verification and validation of a broad range of systems and systems-of-systems.
S ...
(SysML)
*
Object Constraint Language
The Object Constraint Language (OCL) is a declarative language describing rules applying to Unified Modeling Language (UML) models developed at IBM and is now part of the UML standard. Initially, OCL was merely a formal specification language ex ...
(OCL)
*
Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)
*
Interactive Media Manager (IMM)
*
Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules
The Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) is an adopted standard of the Object Management Group (OMG) intended to be the basis for formal and detailed natural language declarative description of a complex entity, such as a bu ...
(SBVR)
*
XML Schema
An XML schema is a description of a type of XML document, typically expressed in terms of constraints on the structure and content of documents of that type, above and beyond the basic syntactical constraints imposed by XML itself. These constra ...
(XSD)
*
National Electronic Distributors Association
The National Electronic Distributors Association (NEDA) was a trade association in the United States of manufacturers and distributors.
The association cooperates in standardization of names for components, such as batteries. NEDA is often cited ...
(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 Connected Data Objects (CDO) is a free implementation of a Distributed Shared Model Distribution may refer to:
Mathematics
*Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations
*Proba ...
(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.
Application lifecycle management
Application lifecycle management
Application lifecycle management (ALM) is the product lifecycle management (governance, development, and maintenance) of computer programs. It encompasses requirements management, software architecture, computer programming, software testing, ...
(ALM) and
task management
Task management is the process of managing a task through its life cycle. It involves planning, testing, tracking, and reporting. Task management can help either individual achieve goals, or groups of individuals collaborate and share knowledg ...
in Eclipse need an optional component called Mylyn (), an
open-source implementation of the
task-focused interface. It provides an API for tools embedding the task-focused interface. For software developers, it helps a developer work efficiently with many different tasks (such as bugs, problem reports or new features). Tasks are integrated into Mylyn. For all tasks that have been integrated, Mylyn monitors user activity and tries to identify information relevant to the task at hand. It uses this task context to focus the Eclipse UI on the related information. Mylyn can integrate with repositories such as
Bugzilla
Bugzilla is a web-based general-purpose bug tracking system and testing tool originally developed and used by the Mozilla project, and licensed under the Mozilla Public License.
Released as open-source software by Netscape Communications in 199 ...
,
Trac
Trac is an open-source, web-based project management and bug tracking system. It has been adopted by a variety of organizations for use as a bug tracking system for both free and open-source software and proprietary projects and products. Tra ...
,
Redmine
Redmine is a free and open source, web-based project management and issue tracking tool. It allows users to manage multiple projects and associated subprojects. It features per project wikis and forums, time tracking, and flexible, role-based acc ...
,
Mantis
Mantises are an order (Mantodea) of insects that contains over 2,400 species in about 460 genera in 33 families. The largest family is the Mantidae ("mantids"). Mantises are distributed worldwide in temperate and tropical habitats. They ha ...
,
JIRA,
Unfuddle,
and
GitHub
GitHub, Inc. () is an Internet hosting service for software development and version control using Git. It provides the distributed version control of Git plus access control, bug tracking, software feature requests, task management, continu ...
.
It focuses on improving productivity by reducing searching, scrolling, and navigation. By making task context explicit, Mylyn is also meant to facilitate multitasking, planning, reusing past efforts, and sharing expertise.
The project name comes from
myelin
Myelin is a lipid-rich material that surrounds nerve cell axons (the nervous system's "wires") to insulate them and increase the rate at which electrical impulses (called action potentials) are passed along the axon. The myelinated axon can be ...
, an electrically insulating layer that surrounds neurons' axons.
The original name of this project, "Mylar", replicated a trademark of a
boPET
BoPET (biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate) is a polyester film made from stretched polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and is used for its high tensile strength, chemical and dimensional stability, transparency, reflectivity, gas and ar ...
film company, so the
Eclipse Foundation
The Eclipse Foundation AISBL is an independent, Europe-based not-for-profit corporation that acts as a steward of the Eclipse open source software development community, with legal jurisdiction in the European Union. It is an organization suppo ...
changed the project name.
Extensions
Eclipse supports a rich selection of extensions, adding support for
Python
Python may refer to:
Snakes
* Pythonidae, a family of nonvenomous snakes found in Africa, Asia, and Australia
** ''Python'' (genus), a genus of Pythonidae found in Africa and Asia
* Python (mythology), a mythical serpent
Computing
* Python (pro ...
via
PyDev
PyDev is a third-party plug-in for Eclipse. It is an Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used for programming in Python supporting code refactoring, graphical debugging, code analysis among other features.
History
PyDev was originally ...
,
Android development via
Google's ADT (superseded by
Android Studio
Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Google's Android operating system, built on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA software and designed specifically for Android development. It is available for download on Windows ...
since 2015),
JavaFX
JavaFX is a software platform for creating and delivering desktop applications, as well as rich web applications that can run across a wide variety of devices. JavaFX has support for desktop computers and web browsers on Microsoft Windows, Linu ...
via e(fx)clipse,
JavaScript
JavaScript (), often abbreviated as JS, is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client side for webpage behavior, of ...
,
jQuery
jQuery is a JavaScript library designed to simplify HTML DOM tree traversal and manipulation, as well as event handling, CSS animation, and Ajax. It is free, open-source software using the permissive MIT License. As of Aug 2022, jQuery is u ...
, and many others at the Eclipse Marketplace. Valable is a
Vala
Vala or VALA may refer to:
Religion and mythology
* Vala (Vedic), a demon or a stone cavern in the Hindu scriptures
* Völva, also spelled Vala, a priestess in Norse mythology and Norse paganism
Fiction
* Vala (Middle-earth), an angelic being in ...
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) was superseded in 2015 by the Eclipse foundation's own plugin, called Andmore: Development Tools for Android, after Google discontinued development of their plug-in for the Eclipse IDE, that is designed to provide an integrated environment in which to build Android applications. ADT/Andmore 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. Googles' ADT was the official IDE for Android until 2015 but was replaced by Eclipse's Andmore and the official
Android Studio
Android Studio is the official integrated development environment (IDE) for Google's Android operating system, built on JetBrains' IntelliJ IDEA software and designed specifically for Android development. It is available for download on Windows ...
.
See also
*
Comparison of integrated development environments
The following tables list notable software packages that are nominal IDEs; standalone tools such as source code editors and GUI builders are not included. These IDEs are listed in alphabetical order of the supported language.
ActionScript
...
*
Comparison of integrated development environments for Java
*
List of Eclipse-based software
The Eclipse IDE platform can be extended by adding different plug-ins. Notable examples include:
* Acceleo, an open source code generator that uses EMF-based models to generate any textual language (Java, PHP, Python, etc.).
* Actifsource, a ...
*
List of Eclipse projects
The following is a list of notable Eclipse projects.
Although some of the listed projects play a vital role for the Eclipse IDE the Eclipse project ecosystem covers a significantly larger scope than the Eclipse IDE.
Official projects
These ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
*
*
Eclipse Foundation Press Releaseson eclipse.org
Eclipse Foundation 2006 Press Releases Archiveon eclipse.org
on eclipse.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eclipse (Software)
Android (operating system) development software
Code navigation tools
Cross-platform free software
Debuggers
Formerly proprietary software
Free HTML editors
Free integrated development environments
Free software programmed in Java (programming language)
Free UML tools
IBM software
Integrated development environments
Java development tools
Java platform
Linux integrated development environments
Linux programming tools
Linux software
MacOS programming tools
MacOS text editors
Programming tools for Windows
Software development kits
Software using the Eclipse license