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Eclipse
Eclipse is not a typical open source project in that IBM has reportedly invested more than 40 million dollars in its development. Conceptually Eclipse is intended to be an open source platform for developing IDEs. Eclipse is also the basis for IBM’s WebSphere Advanced Developer (WSAD). Although Eclipse is designed to be a platform for developing IDEs, it is also a Java IDE and is developed in Java. However instead of using the Java Swing or AWT (Abstract Window Toolkit) classes to implement the user interface, Eclipse uses a package called the Standard Widget Toolkit, or SWT. SWT replaces AWT or Swing,providing a thin wrapper over the native operating system calls for accessing GUI resources. This has a dramatic impact on performance and the look and feel of the user interface. Unlike other Java-based applications, which seem a little sluggish,Eclipse is fast and responsive even on slower workstations.
Another effect is that, when running on Windows, Eclipse has the feel and behavior of a native Windows application, yet when running under Linux,Eclipse has the feel and behavior of a native Linux application. The following table provides summary information for Eclipse.
The licensing model for Eclipse allows extensions to the IDE to be repackaged with the IDE and the resulting products sold commercially. This has encouraged support for integration of a number of commercial and open source extensions to the product, which is a good thing. Out of the box, Eclipse does not come with support for easily building Web-based applications using servlets or JavaServer Pages; however, there are several plug-ins available to add this support.
As a native Java IDE, Eclipse provides the extended tools for editing Java language-specific source code files that developers have come to expect from professional development environments. These include features such as code assist and code completion. Eclipse does have one feature that is different from most other development environments: Eclipse tries to compile the code each time the code is saved, which has the effect of ensuring that you always have code that compiles.
