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Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers

The Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers contains what you need to build Eclipse applications, including plug-ins for the development environment and Eclipse Rich Client Platform (RCP) applications. Designed specifically for the task, this is the best tool available for building Eclipse plug-ins and applications (it is also considered by many to be the best Java development tool available). The Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers provides superior Java editing with incremental compilation, the Plug-in Development Environment (PDE), an XML Editor, Mylyn, complete source code for the Eclipse Platform, and much more. Looking for what's in each package?

If you are building Java applications, not Eclipse plug-ins, consider Eclipse IDE for Java Developers.

What You Need

You will need a Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to run Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers. A Java 5 JRE is recommended.

  • Download the Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers (Package Contents - Package FAQ)
  • Use the utility for your platform to decompress the downloaded file onto your file system (Windows™ users, see this note).
  • Additional features can be installed from the Europa Update Site via the Update Manager, including:
    • Ruby Development Tools (DLTK)
    • Eclipse Modeling Framework (EMF)
    • Graphical Editing Framework (GEF)
    • Test and Performance Tools (TPTP)
    • Graphical Modeling Framework (GMF)
    • Data Tools (DTP)

New and Noteworthy

Eclipse for RCP/Plug-in Developers—built using Eclipse 3.3—includes numerous enhancements over previous versions, including:

  • Improved debugging support, including hyperlink stepping.
  • A new Quick Access feature (ctrl-3) to enhance IDE navigation.
  • Support for Mac OSX on Intel and early access support for Windows Vista.
  • Improvements in Plug-in Development Environment (PDE) to make building RCP applications easier.
  • Task-focused development (Mylyn).

For a list of new features in Eclipse 3.3, check out the New and Noteworthy.

Tutorials and help

Documentation and Newsgroups

Suggested reading