This page has a description of my Eclipse configuration, including information about the plugins I use.

I use the following plugins, which I recommend:

• Eclipse Checkstyle Plugin (update site: http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update): This is a plugin that enforces coding styles. There is more information on setting up a personal code style here.
• EclEmma (update site: http://update.eclemma.org/): Java Code Coverage Software.
• FindBugs plugin (update site: http://findbugs.cs.umd.edu/eclipse/): uses static analysis to look for bugs in Java code
• Metrics (update site: http://metrics.sourceforge.net/update): calculates a number of metrics for your Java code
• PMD (update site: http://pmd.sf.net/eclipse): scans Java source code and looks for potential problems

• PyDev (update site: http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/): provides a Python development environment for Eclipse, making it easy to use Eclipse to work with Python.

In order to use PyDev, you should first ensure python and pylint are installed. Instructions to do this are here.

Next you will have to set the correct versions in the pydev properties:

1. Click Eclipse → Preferences…
2. Open the Pydev settings and Interpreter - Python
3. Ensure that a valid python interpreter is set (I removed the default and the version i installed with MacPorts: /opt/local/bin/python)
4. Open the Pylint settings
5. Set the location of pylint to a valid installation (I used /opt/local/bin/pylint, which was installed with Macports.

You should now be good to go with PyDev

In order to make SVN work properly with Eclipse I first installed the following plugins:

• JDT Ignore Extensions (Under Ganymede→Collaboration Tools)
• SVN Team Provider (Incubation)

Then after restarting, I installed the following from the Polarion update site (http://www.polarion.org/projects/subversive/download/eclipse/2.0/ganymede-site):

• SVNKit 1.1.7 Implementation (Optional)
• Subversive SVN Connectors

• TeXlipse (update site: http://texlipse.sourceforge.net): adds Latex support to Eclipse.

1. Click Help→Software Updates. This opens a new window.
2. Now Click on the “Add Site…” button
3. Now enter the URL of the update site, e.g., http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/update for the Eclipse Checkstyle Plugin

By default the Eclipse Problems view shows all the problems in your workspace. In order to show only those in the current project, only those in or under the current resource, or some other configuration, follow these instructions:

1. Open the Problems view
2. Click on the options triangle to the right
3. Click on “Configure Contents…”
4. Under scope, select either “On any element in the same project” or “On selected element and its children” (my favourite). If you want to customise it more fully select your own working set

Sometimes the console output in eclipse is limited to a fixed buffer size (this used to be the default). If you wish to change this, take the following steps:

1. Click Eclipse → Preferences → Run/Debug → Console
2. Uncheck the “Limit console output” box or change the number of characters to whatever suits your project

N.B. be careful when you do this as Eclipse may hog your memory if the output to the console is substantial

Eclipse has the capability of formatting code automatically according to a predefined codestyle. I work on the Construct open-source project and we use our own formatter and checkstyle configuration, which is documented here.