Eclipse Ganymede (the successor to Europa) was released today. Ubuntu seems to be stuck on Eclipse 3.2 since at least Feisty Fawn. There are nice features that we are missing out on (Mylyn, inline renames, etc.).
JDK
First things first, you need a JDK (Java SDK) in order to use Eclipse. I am a fan of the OpenJDK, Sun’s open source version of its JDK. OpenJDK recently reached full Sun JDK compliance. But any JDK should work, assuming it is at least Java 5.
sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk
Then update your ~./bashrc file, appending the JAVA_HOME (adjust this if you use a different JDK).
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/
Get Ganymede
wget http://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/eclipse/technology/epp/downloads/release/ganymede/R/eclipse-java-ganymede-linux-gtk.tar.gz tar xzvf eclipse-java-ganymede-linux-gtk.tar.gz mv eclipse eclipse3.4
We should be ready to go:
eclipse3.4/eclipseAnd your nice new Eclipse is up and running.
Suggested Plugins
Eclipse is great because it has so many plugins. I even use it as my default Python editor. If you go to Help > Software Updates, you will see a vastly improved update dialog (the previous one was painful).
Here are my favorites:
- EclEmma is a great code coverage tool. Update site: http://update.eclemma.org/
- Subclipse is the best Subversion plugin I have come across. Update site: http://subclipse.tigris.org/update_1.2.x
- PyDev one of the best editors I have come across (Code completition, refactoring, etc.). Update site: http://pydev.sourceforge.net/updates/
- Mecrurial My favorite new DVCS tool inside Eclipse. Update site: http://www.vectrace.com/eclipse-update/
- Regular Expressions can be easily tested with this plugin. Update site: http://brosinski.com/regex/update/
- Maven the Ant-replacement build tool for Java. Update site: http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/update/
Let me know what you think of the new Eclipse and if there are other plugins you just can not live without.
Update: As Scott points out in the comments, there is an open request on launchpad to include a more recent version of Eclipse in the Ubuntu repositories: https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/eclipse/+bug/123064