Many different Eclipse packages are listed on http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/ and the comparison chart on http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/compare.php helps with knowing some of the differences. What I don’t know as a total Eclipse (and Java) noob is how important it is to download the “right one” and how easy it is to fix things afterward if I discover I need some feature/capability/addon/whatever later.
For example, I need to get up to speed on RCP (whatever that is) quickly, but suspect I might want to also know about “EMF” and “GEF” and other things which aren’t in the RCP version of Eclipse, or not listed at all such as SWT. I’m further confused by the top line of the comparison table, “RCP/Platform” with checkmarks under all columns – does this mean any package will do for learning the basics of RCP? This is not noob-friendly!
As an Eclipse know-nothing, what should I do?
I’d say download Eclipse Classic, then you can add whatever you need as plugins when you discover you need them in the future.