On Eclipse; for sophomore students in Computer Science at VUB.

VUB, Belgium, Computer Science, Eclipse, C++, Object-oriented, Modeling, OO, CDT

If you don't hate IDEs, then you owe yourself a look at Eclipse. I won't get involved in the editor wars --if you don't know, don't ask. But I think Eclipse is, among other things, a feature-rich C++ platform offering features like incremental compilation, continious build, easy-to-use debugger and so on. I've decided to use it as my local development environment next to Vim & Make that I'll be using while working on the server remotely. This guide is split into two parts: Part I: describes the installation process; and Part II: briefly covers usage. Happy Hacking!

Eclipse Downloads are available at: It would be interesting to download the Eclipse Modeling Tools distribution, which already includes the plugins we might need for experimenting with the UML editor. Select your operating system and platform to proceed with the download. Screenshot: Eclipse Modeling Tools distribution Install Eclipse by extracting the archive you just downloaded. GNU/Linux users can install it under /opt. $ cd /opt $ sudo tar zxvf eclipse-modeling-...-linux-gtk.tar.gz Try to create a shortcut depending on your graphical environment for easier launch of Eclipse in the future. Once you launch Eclipse, you'll be prompted to choose a workspace. This is where your project files are stored. Something like ~/ws/eclipse would be appropriate. By installing new plugins we can adapt Eclipse to include new functionalities we need. Here we're going to add the required plugins for setting up a C/C++ IDE.

Go to: Help > Software Screenshot: Where to install new plugins When the wisard shows up, go to Install Software tab and then click on Add Site.... Enter the following URL in the input field. http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/ganymede Screenshot: Add CDT Repository You have just added a new repository, which Eclipse can use to retrieve new plugins and their future updates. Now, check the button beside the newly added repository and click on Install.... Screenshot: Select and Install CDT Components Proceed to install the selected plugins by following the steps suggested by the wisard and then finish the installation.

Start a new C++ project by clicking on File > New > C++ Project Screenshot: Start a New C++ Project When the wisard appears, make sure that you select the right environment. Screenshot: New C++ Project Wisard In case you're using a version control system, you should first check out your source code and while the focus is on the project in the file browser, click on File > New > Convert to a C/C++ Make Project. Once the project is created, you should add your source files to the project. That is, *.h files, *.C, Makefile, etc.

CDT perfectly understands Makefiles and you should be able to build your project without any adaptations as the default targets are called. You could however right-click on your project and then on Properties to check the build settings of your project. Screenshot: C++ Project Build Settings

In order to run an executable that has been generated by the compiler, right-click on the executable and then click on Run As followed by Run Configurations.... Screenshot: C++ Project Run Configuration Now, right-click on C/C++ Local Application and the on New. Screenshot: C++ Project New Run Configuration Your run settings might look like the following screenshot. Screenshot: C++ Project Run Settings

Eclipse provides an excellent environment for debugging. It uses the magnificant GDB but the power is due to the fact that it provides the developer with visual control over the code and the evolution of variables. If the you're able to run your project, you could start debugging as easily as clicking on the Debug button. Screenshot: C++ Projet Debugger

This document is specifically written for sophomore students in Computer Science at VUB. I look forward to your comments and suggestions. If you wished this document were in a wiki, for instance, please feel free to nod. Computing platform on which the instructions in this document are tested: GNU/Linux (Ubuntu Hardy) 3.4.1 2.6.24-21 i686 By using a version control system, you can easily maintain an up-to-date version of your code on the remote server provided by the university. I use Subversion, which works quite well with Eclipse but other systems could also be used. Note that, if you don't care about keeping your code under a version control system, you can still sync your code with the server by using rsync.