JMU CS Wiki

Eclipse requires Java. If you are going to use Eclipse to write programs in a language other than Java, you need only install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE). If you are going to use Java to develop programs written in Java then you must install the Java Development Kit (JDK).

The current version of Eclipse has an installer . First, click on the appropriate link for your operating system.(If you don't know whether you have a 32 bit or 64 bit operating system choose “32 bit” or search the WWW to learn how to find out whether your OS is 32 bit or 64 bit. Note that the bit-width of the JDK Java and Eclipse must match.) Then, save the file to your local file system. Finally, follow the installation instructions . For programming courses that use Java (e.g., CS149/159/345) you should install the “Eclipse IDE for Java Developers” package.

(If you prefer, you can install Eclipse manually using the packages at eclipse.org . First select your operating system from the drop-down box.Next, click on either the “32 bit” or “64 bit” link of the appropriate package. For programming courses that use Java (e.g., CS149/159/345) you should download the “Eclipse IDE for Java Developers”. Save the file to your local filesystem and then “unpackage” it.)

Since you may customize Eclipse differently for different courses, you should make a workspace for each course. To do so, click on File-Select Workspace.