Eclipse Banner Eclipse IDE Tutorial

IBM's Eclipse is a program that is used to write applications (other programs) in a variety of programming languages. It allows you to complete many distinct program development steps in one place (program window). A program which allows you to do this is known as an integrated development environment, or IDE.

In this course, Eclipse is used for writing programs in Java. There are several steps that must be completed to set up Eclipse and further steps to start up a new Java project (set of Java components which work together to make up an application). This tutorial explains each step with words and graphics from the Eclipse IDE.

This tutorial will help you to become familiar with the Eclipse IDE. You can navigate through the tutorial step-by-step by clicking on the previous step and next step links at the top and bottom of each page. You may also use the index to jump directly to the specific step that you wish to review.

Index

Here is a brief description of each step in this tutorial. The underlined word in bold is used as the link label throughout the tutorial. Most of the images are not taken from windows XP, but they are still helpful.
Start The start of the tutorial (top of this page).
Launch Step 1: How to launch the Eclipse IDE.
Create Step 2: How to create a new programming project.
Edit Step 3: How to edit an existing project.
Run Step 4: How to run your program. This also includes building or compiling your project.

Change folder options to display file extensions

You only need to do this once in the course, but both partners should do it. Files in windows include extensions to let the computer know what sort of file it is. For example, a file could be an image, a java program, a website, or a text document. Windows assume the average user does not need to see the extension, but as computer scientists, we want more control over our computers and the files saved on them.
  1. Click on the buttonon your desktop.
  2. Select the My Computer from the menu.
  3. Click the "Tools" menu and choose "Folder Options..."

  4. A new window titled Folder Options will appear, click on the View tab.
  5. Uncheck the box next to "Hide file extensions for known file types".

  6. Click OK to exit and save the change.
  7. Click the close window button in the upper right hand corner of the Control Panel to close the window.

Window buttons

 We're ready to start Eclipse!

Step 1: How to launch the Eclipse IDE

Launch Create Edit Run previous step next step
This step will show you how to start the Eclipse program on the Windows 2000 operating system. This will be very familiar if you already know how to start other programs in a Windows environment.
  1. Click on the Start button in the lower left corner of your desktop.

  2. Find the Eclipse program in the Windows menu. Start → Programs → Eclipse → eclipse.

  3. Note that the "Eclipse" menu may not be visible. Examine the following image:
    Programs Menu
    In this image, the Eclipse menu is visible. Click on the double down arrow (double down arrow) if the Eclipse menu is not visible. You will then see something resembling the following:
    Full Programs Menu
    If you look enough, you should be able to find the "Eclipse" menu.

  4. When you launch Eclipse, you will be shown the following splash screen while it loads, which can take a few minutes:
    Splash screen

  5. After launching Eclipse for the first time, it will first ask you for a workspace location with an image like the following:
    Workspace launcher
    Change the workspace location to u:\private\cs302\projects and make it so that this is the default choice, as in the following image:
    Workspace launcher

  6. You will then be presented with a welcome workspace like the following:
    Welcome Workspace
    You can optionally explore the various icons as you wish. The next time you run Eclipse, you will not be shown this welcome workspace, but all of the information it contains can be found elsewhere.

    When you are done, close the Welcome pane by clicking the X on the tab, then continue to the next step of the tutorial and use the Eclipse IDE to develop your Java programming project.

    Launch Create Edit Run previous step next step

    Last modified September 6, 2005
    Original version created by Sue Hazlett
    Updated for Eclipse by Martin Hock
    Updated for lab section use by Rebecca Hasti