Eclipse: Download/Installation Instructions

You may want to print these instructions before proceeding. You should read each step completely before performing the action it describes. Because these products may change slightly each semester, I would appreciate it if you would let me know if you find any discrepancies between these instructions and what actually happens when you try to follow them.

IMPORTANT: Install Java first, BEFORE you install Eclipse.

The following instructions were composed for installing Eclipse 3.2 on Windows. The process for Mac/Linux should be similar. 

A typical installation takes about 134 Mb of disk space.

Downloading

1. Click Eclipse 3.2
   A page, with the label eclipse downloads, will be displayed in your browser.

2. In the first section, find the text Download Now: Eclipse SDK 3.2, Windows (120 MB)

3. Click the icon to the left of this text, or the part of the text labeled Eclipse SDK 3.2
   If you are using a Mac, it should sense it and display Mac instead of Windows. If you are not using the operating system it recognizes, click the link labeled Other downloads for 3.2 instead.

4. Click the icon to the left of the text Download from: for using the default mirror site (or click a site from the list displayed in the box).

5. Click the Save button to download, somewhere on your disk, the file named eclipse-SDK-3.2-win32.zip (for PCs). The exact form of this interaction will depend on the version of your operating system. Store this zip file somewhere permanent on your disk drive, so that you can unzip it (recreate Eclipse) later, if necessary

6. Terminate (X) any windows remaining from this process.

Installing

1. Unzip this file that you just downloaded.
   On most Windows machines, you can
   • Right-click the file.
   • Move to the WinZip command.
   • Click Extract to here
   It creates a folder named eclipse. You can leave this folder here or move it elsewhere on your disk drive. 
   On Mac, this may happen automatically.
   
2. Windows: Create a shortcut on your desktop to the eclipse.exe file.
   On most Windows machines, you can
   • Right-press the file eclipse.exe
   • Drag it to the desktop.
   • Release the right button.
   • Click Create shortcut here
   Now you are ready to perform a one-time only setup of Eclipse.
   Mac:  Move Eclipse to your dock.   Find Eclipse in your Applications folder and drag it to your Dock.
3. Double-click the shortcut to Eclipse that you just created. In the Workspace Launcher window, in the box following Workspace:, should appear something like C:\Documents and Settings\username\workspace (where username is your login on the machine). If you want, you can type in (or browse) another location for the workspace file to be created, but I advise accepting the default.

4. Check the box labeled Use this as the default and do not ask again.
   Aside: you will be using one workspace during the semester, checking projects in and out of this workspace. If you ever want to re-enable the display of this window, once Eclipse starts, you can
   • Select Window | Preferences.
   • Click the + in front of General or double-click General (after the +)
   • Click Startup and Shutdown
   • Check the box labeled Prompt for workspace on startup.

5. Click OK

6. If you want easy access to the workspace, create a shortcut to it (see the instructions above), putting the shortcut on your desktop.