These instructions are for people who want to install Eclipse from scratch using our custom-configured Eclipse version. You can do this if you have never installed Eclipse before, or if you wish to completely overwrite your current Eclipse installation.
There are four steps to installing our version of Eclipse. Note that the first two steps are optional for those who just want Java support, but will be necessary if you wish to use Eclipse for C++ programming. All VT students are encouraged to follow all three steps, since they will use C++ via Eclipse in their sophomore year courses.
Eclipse is written in Java, so you must have an up-to-date Java runtime (JRE) installed (as of this writing, the latest version of the JRE is 6). The full Java development kit (JDK) is not necessary unless you want to develop Java outside of Eclipse, so the directions below will only direct you to download the JRE. If you already have Java installed, skip to Step 2 below.
Go to the Java SE download page and download the latest JRE update that is available (as of this writing, the latest version is JRE 6 Update 16). If you want to download the full JDK for development outside of Eclipse, download only the JDK 6 Update 16 instead (not any of the bundles).
On the next page, choose Windows as your platform.
32- vs. 64-bit note: Many users are nowadays running 64-bit versions of their operating systems. In order to be compatible with the largest number of users, the Eclipse bundle that we provide still includes the 32-bit version of Eclipse. Therefore, even if you are running a 64-bit version of Windows, you will need to make sure to install a 32-bit JRE by choosing Windows and not Windows x64 in this step. (64-bit Windows can have both 32-bit and 64-bit Java runtimes installed simultaneously.)
Check the checkbox to agree to the JRE terms and click Continue.
Then, download the Windows Offline Installation.
Execute the installer file you downloaded to install the Java SE runtime.
We recommend that you are running Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or later. We have not tested the latest version of Eclipse and our features in 10.4 (Tiger), but you are welcome to try them there.
If your system has all of the most recent updates, the version of Java that is installed should be sufficient. To be sure, go to Software Updates... from the Apple menu and if any Java updates appear, install them.
Most Linux distributions come with an open-source version of Java installed, such as GNU's gcj or OpenJDK. We have not tested and do not recommend running Eclipse or our features on this Java runtime. We recommend that you use whatever package manager your distribution comes with to install the Sun version of Java; see your documentation or Google for instructions on how to install this and make it the default Java runtime, if necessary.
If you do not already have Cygwin installed and want to do C++ development:
Download and execute vteclipse-350-20090921-win32-setup.exe, the latest Cygwin/Eclipse setup bundle. This will install Cygwin (which includes gcc) on your system, then install Eclipse and configure your Eclipse workspace with the settings that we use in our courses at Virginia Tech.
The first time that you start Eclipse, it may ask you for the location of your workspace. Accept the default value, and if you do not want to be bothered again, check the box labeled Use this as the default and do not ask again.
If you already have Cygwin installed:
Download vteclipse-350-20090921-win32.zip.
Extract this file and move the "eclipse" directory to wherever you want to store it.
Download vteclipse-workspace-20090921.zip. This archive contains default workspace settings for Eclipse.
Extract this file and move the "workspace" directory to somewhere appropriate, such as the "eclipse" directory or your home directory. You may rename this folder if you wish.
When you start Eclipse for the first time and it asks for the location of your workspace, point it to the directory that you extracted in the previous step. If you do not want to be bothered again, check the box labeled Use this as the default and do not ask again.
Download vteclipse-350-20090921-macosx.zip.
Extract this file and move the "Eclipse" directory to wherever you want to store it (Applications or your home directory are good places).
Download vteclipse-workspace-20090921.zip. This archive contains default workspace settings for Eclipse.
Extract this file and move the "workspace" directory to somewhere appropriate, such as your home directory or a subdirectory of your home. You may rename this folder if you wish.
When you start Eclipse for the first time and it asks for the location of your workspace, point it to the directory that you extracted in the previous step. If you do not want to be bothered again, check the box labeled Use this as the default and do not ask again.
Download vteclipse-350-20090921-linux.tar.gz.
Extract this file and move the "Eclipse" directory to wherever you want to store it.
Download vteclipse-workspace-20090921.zip. This archive contains default workspace settings for Eclipse.
Extract this file and move the "workspace" directory to somewhere appropriate, such as your home directory or a subdirectory of your home. You may rename this folder if you wish.
When you start Eclipse for the first time and it asks for the location of your workspace, point it to the directory that you extracted in the previous step. If you do not want to be bothered again, check the box labeled Use this as the default and do not ask again.
If you are working in a lab environment with a single shared installation of Eclipse, all the necessary plug-ins should be installed for you. However, you may need to download and apply our custom settings for your individual workspace.
If you are trying to create a shared installation
used by many students/users (say a single copy of Eclipse on a
shared network drive or server in a lab), beware that the default
Eclipse setup doesn't work very well for this. Eclipse will try
to store its modified configuration settings every time a user
exits (i.e., the currently open workspace, etc.) in the
"configuration" folder within the shared location.
After some searching, we found that this is a known problem with Eclipse.
The situation
and fix are described in the Eclipse bug database. The relevant
excerpt is to add a line like this to the
<eclipse>/configuration/config.ini file
(where <eclipse> is the root of your installation):
osgi.configuration.area=<some location>
If the osgi.configuration.area is given a value like
Z:/eclipse.configuration (where Z:\ is
the user's network-mapped home directory, for example), then each
user's stuff should (theoretically) be written to their own
network-mapped home directory. This worked fine in our lab.