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"Eclipse": Push the Java Programming Envelope

May 5, 2004

Sebastopol, CA--Eclipse, the popular Java integrated development environment (IDE), provides an elegant, powerful, and (best of all) free remedy for Java's exacting programming requirements. When that overlooked typo causes the Java command-line compiler to spew pages of annoying error messages, Eclipse comes to the rescue, catching errors and suggesting solutions. Still, no matter how productive it will make you in the long run, tackling a new technology like Eclipse is bound to take a chunk out of your efficiency at first. Eclipse (O'Reilly, US $44.95), by Steve Holzner, was written to smooth out that learning curve.

"If you've never used Eclipse before, your productivity is about to take a giant jump," promises Holzner. "This is a programmer-to-programmer book, written to bring you up to speed in Eclipse without wasting time." A popular member of the MIT and Cornell faculties for many years and an award-winning author, Holzner knows how to present material in a clear, concise manner.

Eclipse provides a fast-track approach to mastery of Eclipse, approaching the technology as a development tool, not just a platform for making interesting widgets. The book delves into all aspects of Eclipse--from menus, preferences, and views to perspectives, editors, team, and debugging techniques--and how they're used every day by thousands of developers. Hands-on skills are developed and emphasized in dozens of examples presented throughout the book. Eclipse also includes a chapter on the 3.0 release.

Each section of the book starts with an overview, then describes related techniques in detail. A few of the many topics addressed include:

  • Using Eclipse to develop Java code
  • Working with JAR files
  • Setting launch configurations
  • Selecting Java runtimes
  • Creating Javadoc
  • Testing and debugging
  • Working in teams using CVS
  • Building Eclipse projects using Ant
  • The Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT)
  • Web development
  • Developing Struts applications with Eclipse
  • From basics to advanced topics, Eclipse is a focused and insightful guide to this user-friendly environment that enables developers to build tools for web development; application design and modeling; performance and testing; and much more, using the Java programming language.

    Additional Resources:

    Eclipse
    Steve Holzner
    ISBN 0-596-00641-1, 317 pages, $44.95 US, $65.95 CA
    order@oreilly.com
    1-800-998-9938; 1-707-827-7000

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