Eclipse Setup - rajivkanaujia/alphaworks GitHub Wiki

Background

During my continued journey in software development, I had to code in many languages. Some of them are COBOL (yes, I started early :-), C/C++ , .net, Java (and whole eco-systems from J2EE to obsolete Jini etc), JavaScript, Pascal/Object Pascal, Basic/Visual Basic, PHP, Python, Ruby, and many that I am forgetting as I type this wiki. I have used many editors and IDEs too. I started with MS-DOS Editor (edit) and vi on UNIX, and eventually moved to Visual editors/IDEs. I have used Atom, Brackets, Delphi (for Pascal), Jbuilder, IBM Visual Age, IntelliJ, PowerBuilder, Microsoft Visual Studio, Visual J++, Visual Studio Code, CA Visual Relia, Symantec Visual Café, NetBeans, Notepad, Notepad++ and list goes on and on. I do have to agree that when it comes to using a solid development IDE, Microsoft Visual Studio is top of my list. But after the fiasco of Browser War (Microsoft and Netscape) and battle for the control of Java (Microsoft and Sun Microsystem), support for Java diminished from Microsoft platform and I moved on to use many IDEs, and eventually spilled into Visual Age inspired Eclipse in late 1990s.

Why Eclipse as an IDE?

I want to use one IDE to managed multiple programming languages I use or have used.
I want to stop at a breakpoint. If needed, change the variable value in-flight.
And I want to use one IDE, if possible.
Eclipse allows me to not only code in many programming language, but also lets me use the Open Source ecosystem and community resources. I can use/manage Apache, various DBs, Docker, write Android Apps, to PHP code, edit Wikis, use source control like Git etc. work on IBM BlueMix or Azure or Amazon Web Services. <-- all from one IDE.

What I don't like in Eclipse ecosystem?

There are many variants /customization of Eclipse, and they are focused on one technology or other. As a developer, I want to add and remove extensions/plugins, but not use a overly custom Eclipse variant packaged to address only a specific technology. Android Studio and ADT is one unfortunate example of forking.

How did I fix the things I did not like about Eclipse?

Installed Eclipse J2EE and made it my base. Then installed items I need from MarketPlace. The end result was I could code in multiple languages, with ease of moving between various project of various types in one IDE.

What is in this Wiki?

This wiki is just an installation guide for Eclipse and various extensions/packages. How to use the installed Eclipse stuff? In my subsequent wikis, I will inform the readers on how to write "Hello World" in various languages, that use the various extensions/packages. Also included will be accessing Databases like MySQL, and Docker ecosystem. I have been a Microsoft Platform user for very long time and I switched to Mac for development activities in Oct of 2014. Once Microsoft's Bash / Native Ubuntu is fully backed, I will try switching back. Both Microsoft and Mac are good platforms. As a developer, if you know your OS well, then rest is just a preference noise :-) Let's assume that ~/Development/ is the directory where all development will occur.

Uninstall older version of Eclipse

The steps here results in hard uninstall of Eclipse. All preference etc. are gone.

Step 1: Find Eclipse.app and move it to trash

Step 2: Delete ".metadata" from your eclipse workspace. I have my workspace at ~/Development/workspace/ I will delete everything under ~/Development/workspace/.metadata/

    $ rm -rf .metadata/

Step 3: Cleanup

Delete Eclipse artifacts from ~/Library/Preferences, ~/Library/Caches/, ~/Library/Application\ Support/

    $ cd ~/Library/Preferences
    $ rm -rf org.eclipse.platform.ide.plist

    $ cd ~/Library/Caches/
    $ rm -rf org.eclipse.platform.ide

    $ cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/
    <check for any eclipse artifacts here>

Install Java

Install Java if you don't have it already installed. See Installing and configuring Java on Mac

Install Eclipse

Download "Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers"edition and use it as base. Install the software based on the instruction provided. The EE edition contains several language editors / software packages by default. Some of them are mentioned below.

Data Tools Platform
Git integration for Eclipse
Eclipse Java Development Tools
Eclipse Java EE Developer Tools
JavaScript Development Tools
Maven Integration for Eclipse
Mylyn Task List
Eclipse Plug-in Development Environment
Remote System Explorer
Code Recommenders Tools for Java Developers
Eclipse XML Editors and Tools

Note: To clean / clean restart, find eclipse executable and run it with below mentioned options

    $ cd /Applications/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS
    $ ./eclipse -clean -refresh

Launch Eclipse

Select a workspace

Confirm the welcome screen

Close the welcome screen to see the IDE

Next Steps

Installation of various items from Marketplace and their configuration

Note: If you like the instructions here, please refer it on your posts/documentation. Contact me if there are corrections needed.