Friday, June 6, 2008

Ganymede

So I've been using Eclipse 3.3 for a while and was anxious to get new features and better performance out of it. So I started using Ganymede (3.4). I held my breath until M5 and then I caved in and installed it. Then M6, then M7, and now RC2. What I can say is that M5 was good, but then I had issues with M6 and M7. Finally, RC2 is improved in terms of stability.
Still, it simply freezes from time to time.

It still does not take advantage of the dual core's out there, but I guess this is actually Java's fault, not Eclipse's.

Too bad that some of the plugins I've been using before are not working on Ganymede. For instance Weblogic Server Tools plugin which stopped working since M5. Well, time will fix it :).

I applaud the efforts to provide pre-packaged versions of the Ganymede download as it really was a pain to jump from one project to another in order to assemble a proper J2EE development environment.

Friday, May 23, 2008

Useful Eclipse Plugins

Get the latest version of Eclipse IDE and you'll automatically get a lot of goodies. However, you'll soon realize that you've just opened the jar and there's a lot more out there. Some of it is free, some requires moolah to come out of your pocket.
Since I'm cheap, I'm mostly looking at what's free :).
For a web developer I find that Eclipse provides a solid base, but you can add some plugins:
  • Spket JavaScript 1.6.12 (or later) - www.spket.com - this is a fantastic JavaScript plugin that "knows" the most important AJAX libraries out there, including my favourite: ExtJS.
  • Aptana JS plugin (or Aptana IDE) - this is another great way to edit and debug javascript for you web application. However, Spket does code completion a little better.
  • UMLet - www.umlet.com - unlike TogetherJ this is light and nimble and it helps with creating some basic UML diagrams. There is no code synchronization, but who cares?
  • SemmleCode - www.semmle.com - this is a pretty smart tool for analyzing your code. It does need a database though ...
  • X-Ray Software Visualization - http://atelier.inf.unisi.ch/~malnatij/xray.php - package dependency, complexity and much more.
  • Do you also do some project management? Then you could use ProjectKoach - www.projectkoach.com - and you don't have to leave eclipse environment for this.
  • BEA Weblogic Server Tools - https://dev2devclub.bea.com/updates/wls-tools/ - this will allow you to control your Weblogic domain from eclipse.

Obviously there's much more out there.