Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide

Chapter 8. Short Takes

This pocket guide wouldn't fit in your pocket if it described every nuance of Eclipse in detail. However, I want to briefly mention a few more of Eclipse's notable features in this part of the book. Some of these are built into the Eclipse SDK; some are plug-ins that you need to download and install yourself.

Tip

The packaging of Eclipse is constantly evolving, so by the time you read this, you may be able to find downloads that combine parts of the Eclipse SDK with plug-ins for a specific task—for example, web development.

In addition, you can find hundreds of plug-ins that extend Eclipse by searching the community web sites listed in Part IX.

To find out more about any of these features, see the online help topic or web sites listed in the following sections. Note that when you install a plug-in, it will often add a new section to the Help Contents that explains how to use it.

CVS

CVS is a popular source management system for projects and teams of any size. You use a CVS repository to hold the evolving versions of your code, tools, scripts, documentation, and so forth. The Eclipse IDE comes with excellent CVS integration—which makes sense, as CVS is currently used in the development of all Eclipse projects.

Use the CVS Repository Exploring perspective to see the contents of a CVS repository. There you can define the server location, and view or check out (make a local copy of) the code. Eclipse provides a variety of options to keep your local copy up to date ...