is a
Free Software /
Open Source platform-independent
Software Framework for delivering what the project calls "rich-client applications", as opposed to "thin client" browser-based applications. So far this framework has typically been used to develop IDEs (
Integrated Development Environment s), such as the highly-regarded
Java IDE called ''Java Development Toolkit'' (JDT) and compiler that comes as part of Eclipse (and which are also used to develop Eclipse itself). However, it can be used for other types of client application as well. See the popular
BitTorrent client
Azureus for example.
Eclipse was originally developed by
IBM as the successor of its
VisualAge family of tools. Eclipse is now managed by the
Eclipse Foundation , an independent
Not-for-profit consortium of software industry vendors. Many notable software tool vendors have embraced Eclipse as a future framework for their IDEs, among them
Borland ,
BEA Systems and
IBM Rational .
The basis for Eclipse is the
Rich Client Platform (RCP). The following components constitute the rich client platform:
- Core platform (boot Eclipse, run plugins)
- OSGi (a standard bundling framework)
- SWT (a portable Widget Toolkit )
- JFace (file buffers, text handling, text editors)
- The Eclipse Workbench (views, editors, perspectives, wizards)
Eclipse's widgets are implemented by a third generation widget toolkit for Java called
SWT , unlike most Java applications, which use
Sun 's first and second generation toolkits (
AWT and
Swing , respectively). Eclipse's user interface also leverages an intermediate
GUI layer called
JFace , which simplifies the construction of applications based on SWT.
Eclipse employs . It does not have to be used solely to support other programming languages.
Eclipse is also an example of a
SCID , an IDE which stores its code in a database rather than a flat text file.
{Link without Title} This allows for advanced refactoring techniques.
Eclipse is composed of many different projects. Some projects are listed below. A complete list can be found
here .
- per se which includes the Eclipse Platform, Eclipse Rich Client Platform ( RCP ) and the Java Development Tools ( JDT ).
- ( TPTP ) which provides a platform that allow software developers to build test and performance tools, such as Debuggers , Profilers and Benchmarking applications.
- ( WTP ) extends the Eclipse platform with tools for developing , JavaScript , CSS , JSP , SQL , XML , DTD , XSD , and WSDL ; graphical editors for XSD and WSDL; Java EE project natures, builders, and models and a Java EE navigator; a Web service wizard and explorer, and WS-I Test Tools; and database access and query tools and models.
- '''The Eclipse reporting system for web applications, especially those based on Java EE.
- ( VE ) a framework for creating GUI builders for Eclipse
- ( EMF ) a modeling framework and code generation facility for building tools and other applications based on a structured data model, from a model specification described in XMI .
- ( GMT ) a set of modeling tools for example for performing QVT model transformations.
- ( GEF ) allows developers to take an existing application model and easily create a rich graphical editor.
- an implementation of the UML 2.0 Metamodel for the Eclipse platform designed to support the development of modeling tools.
- is an Aspect-oriented language extension to Java
- ( ECF ) is aimed to enable the creation of communications applications on the Eclipse Platform.
- ( DTP )
- ( DSDP )
- ( CDT ) is working towards providing a fully functional C and C++ Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the Eclipse platform.
- ( COBOL ) will build a fully functional COBOL Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for the Eclipse platform.
- ( PTP ) will deliver a portable, scalable, standards-based parallel tools platform that will enable the integration of tools specifically suited for parallel computer architectures.
- ( eRCP ) intent is to extend the Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) to embedded devices. eRCP is largely a set of components which are subsets of RCP components. It basically enables the same application model used on desktop machines to be used on devices.
Eclipse began as an IBM Canada project. It was developed by OTI as a replacement for
VisualAge which itself had been developed by OTI. In November 2001, an IBM-independent foundation was formed to further the development of Eclipse.
Eclipse 3.0 (2003) selected the
OSGi Service Platform specifications as the runtime architecture.
Eclipse was originally released under the , of the Eclipse Foundation has commented that moving to the GPL will be considered when version 3 of the GPL is released.
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,
Simplified Chinese ,
Traditional Chinese ,
Czech ,
French ,
German ,
Hungarian ,
Italian ,
Japanese ,
Korean ,
Polish ,
Portuguese (Brazil),
Russian , and
Spanish .
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- JBuilder , future editions will be based on Eclipse.
- IntelliJ IDEA , developed by JetBrains, Inc., best known for its refactoring features.
- JDeveloper , by Oracle, became free since June, 2005.
- NetBeans — the first modular, open source, multi-language platform and IDE for Java written 100% in Java.
- ATL — a QVT -like langage functioning on top of MDR- NetBeans and , together with a significant collection of model transformation examples available from the '''GMT''' technology project.
- List Of UML Tools .
