Eclipse - Overview

What is Eclipse?

In the context of computing, Eclipse is an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing applications using the Java programming language and other programming languages such as C/C++, Python, PERL, Ruby etc.

The Eclipse platform which provides the foundation for the Eclipse IDE is composed of plug-ins and is designed to be extensible using additional plug-ins. Developed using Java, the Eclipse platform can be used to develop rich client applications, integrated development environments and other tools. Eclipse can be used as an IDE for any programming language for which a plug-in is available.

The Java Development Tools (JDT) project provides a plug-in that allows Eclipse to be used as a Java IDE, PyDev is a plugin that allows Eclipse to be used as a Python IDE, C/C++ Development Tools (CDT) is a plug-in that allows Eclipse to be used for developing application using C/C++, the Eclipse Scala plug-in allows Eclipse to be used an IDE to develop Scala applications and PHPeclipse is a plug-in to eclipse that provides complete development tool for PHP.

Licensing

Eclipse platform and other plug-ins from the Eclipse foundation is released under the Eclipse Public License (EPL). EPL ensures that Eclipse is free to download and install. It also allows Eclipse to be modified and distributed.

Eclipse Releases

Every year, since 2006, the Eclipse foundation releases the Eclipse Platform and a number of other plug-ins in June.