Eclipse (software)

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Eclipse
Eclipse-logo.png
Eclipse 3.6 Helios.jpg
Screenshot of Eclipse 3.6
Developer(s) Free and open source software community
Stable release 3.7.1 Indigo / 23 September 2011; 3 months ago (2011-09-23)
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

In software, Eclipse is an open source community which develops open platforms and products. The community says "[its] projects are focused on building an open development platform consisting of extensible frameworks, tools and runtimes for building, deploying and managing software across the lifecycle".[1] The Eclipse Foundation is a non-profit corporation which acts as the steward of the Eclipse community.[1]

However, as the Eclipse community states, "Eclipse means a lot of different things to different people. To some Eclipse is a [...] Java development environment. To others, Eclipse is a flexible environment to experiment with new computer languages or extensions to existing languages. [...]"[2] In the software world, a simple mention of "Eclipse" usually refers to the Eclipse software development kit (SDK).[3] The Eclipse SDK consists of the Eclipse Platform, Java developments tools and the Plug-in Development Environment.[4] The Eclipse Platform 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. By means of various plug-ins, it can be used to develop applications in various programming languages including Ada, C, C++, COBOL, Java, 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 Java development tools (JDT) for Java, Eclipse CDT for C/C++, and Eclipse PDT for PHP, among others.

The initial codebase originated from VisualAge.[5] The Eclipse 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.

Released under the terms of the Eclipse Public License, Eclipse SDK 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.

Contents

[edit] History

Eclipse began as an IBM Canada project used for MICROSOFT. Object Technology International (OTI), which had previously marketed the Smalltalk-based VisualAge family of IDE products,[5] developed the new product as a Java-based replacement.[6] 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.[7]

Eclipse 3.0 (released on 21 June 2004) selected the OSGi Service Platform specifications as the runtime architecture.[8]

[edit] Licensing

The Eclipse SDK 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).[9] Mike Milinkovich, of the Eclipse Foundation commented that moving to the GPL would be considered when version 3 of the GPL was released.[10]

[edit] 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.[11]

[edit] Releases

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 on the fourth Wednesday of June.

Codename 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
 ? 28 June 2005 3.1
 ? 21 June 2004 3.0 [1]

[edit] Architecture

The Eclipse Platform 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 Eclipse Platform's runtime system 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 the Eclipse Platform to be extended using other programming languages such as C and Python, the plug-in framework allows the Eclipse Platform to work with typesetting languages like LaTeX,[12] 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".[citation needed] 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 graphical user interface layer called JFace, which simplifies the construction of applications based on SWT.

Language packs provide translations into over a dozen natural languages.[13][citation needed]

[edit] Rich Client Platform

Eclipse provides the Rich Client Platform (RCP) for developing general purpose applications. The following components constitute the rich client platform:

[edit] Server 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.

[edit] 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.[14]

[edit] Modeling Platform

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.

[edit] Model Transformation

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.).

[edit] Model Development Tools

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:

  • UML
  • OCL
  • BPMN
  • IMM
  • SBVR
  • XSD
  • NEDA

[edit] Concrete Syntax Development

The Concrete Syntax Development project contains the Graphical Modeling Framework, an Eclipse based framework dedicated to the graphical representation of EMF based models.

[edit] Abstract Syntax Development

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.

[edit] Technology and Research

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.

[edit] Amalgam

Amalgam provides the packaging and integration between all the available modeling tools for the Eclipse package dedicated to modeling tools.

[edit] See also

Portal icon Free software portal
Portal icon Java portal
Portal icon Computer programming portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b "About the Eclipse Foundation". The Eclipse Foundation. http://www.eclipse.org/org/. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  2. ^ "What is Eclipse?". Eclipse community. http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_What_is_Eclipse%3F. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  3. ^ "What are Eclipse projects and technologies?". Eclipse community. http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_What_are_Eclipse_projects_and_technologies%3F. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  4. ^ "Eclipse Build Drop". Eclipse Foundation. http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/drops/R-3.7.1-201109091335/details.php. Retrieved 14 January 2012. 
  5. ^ a b "Where did Eclipse come from?". Eclipse Wiki. http://wiki.eclipse.org/FAQ_Where_did_Eclipse_come_from%3F. Retrieved 16 March 2008. 
  6. ^ Rick DeNatale (15 October 2008). "Will It Go Round in Circles?". http://talklikeaduck.denhaven2.com/articles/2008/10/15/will-it-go-round-in-circles. 
  7. ^ "About the Eclipse Foundation". The Eclipse Foundation. http://www.eclipse.org/org. Retrieved 13 August 2008. 
  8. ^ "OSGi — the footings of the foundation of the platform". The Eclipse Foundation. http://www.eclipse.org/osgi/. Retrieved 25 June 2008. 
  9. ^ "Various Licenses and Comments about Them". Free Software Foundation. 17 May 2007. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html. Retrieved 20 May 2007. 
  10. ^ Peter Galli (2 November 2005). "Moglen: GPL 3.0 Rewrite Drive Is No Democracy". eWeek. http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1881088,00.asp. Retrieved 20 May 2007. 
  11. ^ Darryl K. Taft (20 May 2005). "Eclipse: Behind the Name". eWeek.com. Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings. http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Application-Development/Eclipse-Behind-the-Name. Retrieved 11 August 2008. 
  12. ^ TeXlipse homepage – LaTeX for Eclipse
  13. ^ Eclipse Babel Project
  14. ^ "Eclipse Web Tools Platform Project". http://eclipse.org/: Eclipse. http://eclipse.org/projects/project_summary.php?projectid=webtools. Retrieved 2 May 2011. "The Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) project extends 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, tools to support deploying, running, and testing apps, and APIs for extending its functionality." 

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

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