Question

I have been using the Eclipse platform for Java, javaEE, c++, python and PHP – in various school projects. Now that I am a bit more comfortable with it I would like to have some more accurate instructions on how to set it up. I am on windows7 – I had dropped the eclipse itself in my Dropbox and created workspaces as needed but this ended up in a chaos of settings spread here and there and in various bugs (which showed up when I tried to update to Juno – now features like templates are broken).

So what is the recommended way of setting eclipse up for various languages ? Should I
download the latest release, add the plugins I need (cdt, pdt etc) and then create different workspaces for the different languages (like eclipse_python, eclipse_java, eclipse_javaEE, etc )? How do you set Eclipse up ?

Answer 1

I’ve been using eclipse intensively for about 6 years now, and I’d recommend setting up a separate eclipse installation for up to 1 or 2 different programming languages. The reason is that with too many plug-ins, eclipse might consume too much memory or processor time (of course, depending on what the plug-ins do in background and so on…) which may lead to an unresponsive UI.

I also recommend using separate workspaces for each eclipse installation so that the different configurations/installations don’t interfere with each other.

I wrote a little command line script which allows me to switch the .metadata directory in a workspace for use with a portable drive (supports two modes: home and portable) maybe someone finds that useful…

@ECHO OFF

REM This Script is used to ease using eclipse in a portable manner
REM The script allows to easily switch between several workspace metadata

REM arg1: eclipse runnable
REM arg2: workspace dir
REM arg3: metadata mode (portable or home)

:CHECK_ARG_ONE
IF %1 == "" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "/h" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "/?" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "/help" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "-h" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "-?" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "-help" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "--h" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "--?" GOTO :HELP
IF /i %1 == "--help" GOTO :HELP


:CHECK_ARG_TWO
IF %2 == "" GOTO :ERROR_ARG_TWO


:CHECK_ARG_THREE
IF %3 == "" GOTO :ERROR_ARG_THREE


:PREPARE
SET "ECLIPSE_RUNNABLE=%1"
SET "WORKSPACE_DIR=%2"
ECHO Working Dir: %CD%
ECHO Eclipse Runnable: %ECLIPSE_RUNNABLE%
ECHO Workspace Dir: %WORKSPACE_DIR%
SET "MD=.metadata"
SET "MD_HOME=.metadata_home"
SET "MD_PORTABLE=.metadata_portable"
PUSHD %WORKSPACE_DIR%
IF /i %3 == home GOTO :HOME
IF /i %3 == portable GOTO :PORTABLE
GOTO :ERROR_ARG_THREE_WRONG


:HOME
ECHO Starting home version
IF EXIST %MD% (
    IF EXIST %MD_HOME% (
        IF EXIST %MD_PORTABLE% (
            GOTO :ERROR_MD_PORTABLE_EXISTS_ALREADY
        ) ELSE (
            REN %MD% %MD_PORTABLE%
            REN %MD_HOME% %MD%
        )
    )
) ELSE (
    IF NOT EXIST %MD_HOME% (
        GOTO :ERROR_MD_HOME_EXISTS_NOT
    ) ELSE (
        REN %MD_HOME% %MD%
    )
)
GOTO :RUN


:PORTABLE
ECHO Starting portable version
IF EXIST "%MD%" (
    IF EXIST "%MD_PORTABLE%" (
        IF EXIST "%MD_HOME%" (
            GOTO :ERROR_MD_HOME_EXISTS_ALREADY
        ) ELSE (
            REN "%MD%" %MD_HOME%
            REN "%MD_PORTABLE%" %MD%
        )
    )
) ELSE (
    IF NOT EXIST "%MD_PORTABLE%" (
        GOTO :ERROR_MD_PORTABLE_EXISTS_NOT
    ) ELSE (
        REN "%MD_PORTABLE%" %MD%
    )
)
GOTO :RUN


:ERROR_ARG_TWO
ECHO No second argument supplied (workspace dir)
GOTO :END_ERROR


:ERROR_ARG_THREE
ECHO No third argument supplied (metadata mode - home ^| portable)
GOTO :END_ERROR


:ERROR_ARG_THREE_WRONG
ECHO Supplied third argument (metadata mode) must match (home ^| portable)
GOTO :HELP


:ERROR_MD_HOME_EXISTS_ALREADY
ECHO Trying to rename "%MD%", but the metadata directory "%MD_HOME%" already exists!
GOTO :END_ERROR


:ERROR_MD_HOME_EXISTS_NOT
ECHO Neither "%MD%" nor "%MD_HOME%" exist!
GOTO :END_ERROR


:ERROR_MD_PORTABLE_EXISTS_ALREADY
ECHO Trying to rename "%MD%", but the metadata directory "%MD_PORTABLE%" already exists!
GOTO :END_ERROR


:ERROR_MD_PORTABLE_EXISTS_NOT
ECHO Neither "%MD%" nor "%MD_PORTABLE%" exist!
GOTO :END_ERROR


:HELP
ECHO.
ECHO Eclipse starter script to switch between home and portable metadata
ECHO ©Till Kolditz 2011 ([e-mail])
ECHO.
ECHO This Script is used to ease using eclipse in a portable manner.
ECHO It allows to easily switch between portable and "home" or stationary
ECHO workspace metadata.
ECHO.
ECHO Usage: run.bat (eclipse_runnable) (workspace_dir) (home ^| portable)
ECHO.
ECHO Example1: run.bat eclipse\eclipse.exe workspace home
ECHO Example2: run.bat "eclipse (x64)\eclipse.exe" workspace_special portable
GOTO :END


:RUN
POPD
START "Eclipse" %ECLIPSE_RUNNABLE% -data %WORKSPACE_DIR%
GOTO :END


:END_ERROR
POPD
REM PAUSE for debugging
PAUSE
GOTO :END


:END
GOTO :EOF