Eclipse 2 for Java Developers [Paperback]

“…4 /5 stars …” (Computer Bulletin, July 04)

“…4 /5 stars …” (Computer Bulletin, July 04)

∗ Eclipse is an open source extensible IDE which enables a wide range of tool builders to build best of breed integrated tools covering the whole software lifecycle–from conceptual modeling to deployment
∗ Eclipse is expected to be the development platform of choice for the Java community within the next few years
∗ This book provides an introduction to the Eclipse Java IDE, showing how projects are laid out and the various facilities available to help write Java code
∗ Describes SWT and JFace (Eclipse′s alternative to the Java AWT and Swing) and then demonstrates in practice in a JavaLayer based MP3 player
∗ Shows how Eclipse can be used as a tool platform and an application framework
∗ Demonstrates how to speed up development of applications by reusing and extending existing Eclipse components

Eclipse – the open source and most popular Java IDE – integrates best–of–breed tools such as JUnit and Ant. As a community version of IBM′s Websphere Studio Application Developer (WDAD), Eclipse offers developers a wonderful opportunity to work in and get acquainted with this technology.  It increases productivity and makes code building, testing, debugging, and deploying easier and more streamlined. The plug–in architecture of Eclipse has spawned a large number of Eclipse related sub–projects. With already hundreds of thousands of users worldwide, Eclipse will be the development platform of choice for a large proportion of the Java community.

The book is organised in 3 Parts.  In the first part, readers are introduced to the Eclipse Java IDE and shown how projects are laid out and the various facilities to help write Java code. To illustrate this a lip synchronization for the Java FreeTTS speech synthesis package is implemented. In Part 2, SWT and JFace (Eclipse′s alternative to the Java AWT and Swing) are described and demonstrated in practice in a JavaLayer based MP3 player. In Part 3 the author shows how Eclipse can be used as a tool platform and an application framework. An Aspell based spell checker that seamlessly integrates into the Eclipse platform and can be used in all text based Eclipse editors is given as an example of how powerful it can be to work within this environment. 

Designed for Java developers getting up to speed with Eclipse, there is excellent coverage of JFace and SWT;  details on how to reuse and extend existing Eclipse components; a guide on how to import third party code and integrate it with your own code, and  real–world examples with the code provided on the accompanying website.

Visit the accompanying website on:www.bdaum.de/eclipse/book

Berthold Daum (Lützelbach, Germany) is a consultant and author for trade magazines and industry publications and of books written both in his native German and in English.