Multivendor IDEs are a key factor in
software design. They let a project’s
developers select their preferred tools
from different vendors without worry-
ing about making them work together
or learning multiple interfaces and pro-
gramming environments.
Like other IDEs, Eclipse is a pro-
gramming environment packaged as
an application. It consists of a code edi-
tor, compiler, debugger, GUI builder,
and other tools.
For example, the Eclipse Foundation
has included refactoring tools, which
conduct a series of small transforma-
tions to restructure an existing body of
code—for example, to make it smaller
and less buggy—without changing its
external behavior, noted Ian Skerrett,
the organization’s director of marketing.
The foundation has also added intel-
ligence to the text editor, which is used
for hand coding, Skerrett added.
Eclipse offers a set of APIs that con-
nect tools into one unit, the Generic
Workbench, that works as a single
development environment with one set
of behaviors and interfaces.
Eclipse uses the Standard Widget
Toolkit to provide programs’ inter-
faces. The IBM-created SWT is a class
library for creating GUIs in Java. It lets
developers build portable applications
that directly access the user-interface
facilities of the operating systems on
which they are implemented. The Java
programs thus look like native desk-
top applications.
Proponents say that because the SWT
works with the operating system, it will
perform better than techniques that
bring their own UI features and thereby
create user interfaces that look the same
regardless of the host OS.
Meanwhile, Eclipse automates func-
tions, such as the creation of buttons
and dialog boxes, that developers
might otherwise have to hand code.
Eclipse is built with Java and thus
runs on multiple platforms. However,
it will also help build applications in
other languages such as C, C++,
Cobol, and HTML.