Java A question about the Eclipse IDE

[hagopbul]

TL;DR Summary

reviewing my undergraduate physics classes and having a problem with eclips

hello :

i am reviewing my undergraduate physics classes , during my free time , taking a look on CS106 from stanford programming mythology , but i dont know how to use the eclips program , for example when i write a code using that provided in the course , the libraries seems missing from eclips ? thus creating a problem when trying to compile

what is the solution to this problem

Best regards
H

 

[jedishrfu]

Eclipse is more of a programming tool that has integrated an intelligent editor that monitors your code and highlights errors the moment you make them. The errors highlighted depend on the programming language you're using. As an example, in Java or C/C++ you must define a variable's type as in:

int main() {
  
  int x,y,z;
  
  x=1;y=2;z=3;
  
  println(x,y,z);
  
  return 0;
}

However, in python you can simply say:

x=1; y=2; z=3

print(x,y,z)

Another example is the IDE semicolon checks.

In Java, a semicolon denotes the end of a statement. The IDE will highlight a line without a semicolon at the end. However, a semicolon is a multi-statement separator on the same line in Python.

The Eclipse IDE and others like Netbeans or IntelliJ combine the power of a syntax-highlighting editor with basic language checks, a program compiler, a program debugger, and optionally a source code management system (Github, SVN, CVS...) for code sharing and version control to dramatically speed up the application development process.

Knowing these features of the IDE is a good job skill you should foster.

It's an excellent tool to master. Personally, though, I think NetBeans is the better IDE as many essential plugins come with the initial installation. In contrast, with Eclipse, there are many choices, and often, a good plugin switches from being a free plugin to a subscription-based plugin.

There are several videos and books on how to use Eclipse:







---

Regarding the missing libraries, if this is Java, you could build your code by creating a Maven project and adding dependencies for the missing libraries. Maven is a build tool integrated into Eclipse that gets the requisite libraries from the Maven online repository.

As you get deeper into using Eclipse, you will be learning about many of these other tools and how they work. It can be pretty daunting, but hang in there. It's a great skill to have once you master it.

 

[jedishrfu]

One other thing is that there are two install editions for Java:
- full software development kit install, aka Java SDK edition (for developers)
- java runtime environment install, aka Java JRE edition (for people who only need to run java code)

The runtime environment is a pared-down environment that lacks some of the tools and libraries in the developer install.

The Eclipse Maven plugin can help you find missing libraries by constructing and maintaining the pom.xml file (see Wikipedia entry below).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_Maven

It can do many things and initially looks overly complicated, but in software project development, you'll realize it's hard to live without it.

One caveat: Maven uses a repository of libraries uploaded by other open-source developers. Malware and crypto-mining code have been found in the repository from time to time that could compromise your work. Some developer shops use local repositories to mitigate this problem.

 

[harborsparrow]

This is old but likely still has some useful info: https://harbormist.com/quickrefs/eclipse/

 

[jedishrfu]

Another insight is that developers tend to use Microsoft's Visual Studio Code Editor over other IDEs. It has a lot more support and plugins.

https://code.visualstudio.com/

I began by using Eclipse at one company but later switched to NetBeans because it offered a GUI editor for Java applications and was the preferred editor at work, featuring many built-in plugins. It always seemed that Eclipse plugins would turn into paid options once the developer gained some traction with Eclipse's.

Now, I tend to use MS Visual Code Editor. It works well on all platforms, including Windows, MacOS, and Linux, and it handles line terminations between Windows (CRLF) and Linux (LF) even in a mixed Windows+WSL environment.

 

[pbuk]

Another insight is that developers tend to use Microsoft's Visual Studio Code Editor over other IDEs. It has a lot more support and plugins.

Yes, the World has moved on substantially since CS106A: Programming Methodology at Stanford used Eclipse, or Java. It now uses Python and the PyCharm IDE. PyCharm is excellent for Python, but obviously not as versatile as VS Code (which was not as mature when I believe this course moved to Python in 2019).

The version of CS106A on the Stanford Engineering Everywhere website is from 2007 - good luck getting anything from there to work in 2025!