As the saying goes, a good horse with a good saddle can show the strength of a swift horse. A good developer must have a good set of development tools to create the best products for users. What’s the best IDE in the world? Some will go with the old Visual Studio or Eclipse; Some will go for the soaring IntelliJ; Some prefer Android Studio released by Google, etc.

Each developer has a different choice based on their needs and interests. Among them, Ecplise is an old army, many developers are really love and tired of it. Once upon a time, there were all sorts of expensive and few ides out there, but suddenly a free, open source, relatively fast, Google-supported, textbook IDE would be hard not to catch on. But after a variety of IDE flowers bloom, Ecplise card, too big, complex and other disadvantages gradually emerged, began to decline, a “Once Java IDE king Eclipse, it is how to decline? The article also analyzes the trend:

  • The release of Eclipse 4 marked the end of Eclipse, with slow speeds, strange problems, and ugly UI that set Eclipse back years.
  • The Equinox P2 project was designed to make plug-in upgrades easier, but it ended up being very complex and seems to be competing with InstallShield as a universal installation tool. For this reason, its most common function — installing Eclipse plug-ins — is no longer usable.
  • The advent of Intellij Community edition and free Android Studio means that there is a better IDE for pure Java developers, students, and open source projects looking for a free IDE that doesn’t have to be limited to Ecplise.

It’s not as popular as it used to be, but according to the PYPL index in recent months, Eclipse has remained in the top three IDE rankings, beating Visual Studio by 24.93 percent in the latest PYPL index last month. Won the title and became the most popular IDE again.

The platform remains popular with developers in large part because of the powerful and extensive plugin ecosystem it supports. Originally primarily used as a Java development tool, it is increasingly being used for other programming languages and frameworks, from Scala and Kotlin to JavaScript and Node.js.

Multi-language, multi-framework support is made possible by Eclipse’s good plug-in architecture. By adding various tools, large and small, to your Eclipse, you can extend its functionality and customize it to meet your specific development needs.

Here are several Eclipse plug-ins that are useful to developers. Some have been around for years, some have been around for years, some have cute interfaces, and there are a variety of plug-ins that make Eclipse even more powerful.

Darkest Dark

If you’re one of those people who hates a white background, you don’t ask me why a black screen is better, and you don’t think revising dark with a darkest is redundant. I believe that once you use the Darkest Dark (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/dar…). The theme is sure to love it later, because it makes your eyes less uncomfortable after a long day of computer screens.

SpotBugs

I personally like SpotBugs (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/spo…). This tool. I use it to help me find errors in the code I’m writing. Similar to the FindBugs tool used earlier, SpotBugs preprogrammed hundreds of “bug matching templates” internally, like a rigorous auditor. It searches your code and matches using bug templates to help you find errors in your code. I’m sure some programmers will be skeptical of the bugs SpotBugs finds, but it’s always good to have a tool to help you find bugs and give you a reference.

Checkstyle

Although sometimes I like hate fascism aversion Checkstyle (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/che…). But I must admit that it’s easier to work on projects where everyone follows the same rules and builds the code the same way. The brain has a way of learning style, and when the Spaces for each method are in the same place, the brain understands everyone’s code faster. Of course, you can write Checkstyle plug-ins to enforce your own favorite rules, which means you can customize your own unique things.

Subclipse and Subversive

Git is a growing part of the version control landscape, but many people still use Subversion tools. For SVN user generally has two tools can choose: Subclipse (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/sub…). And Subversive (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/sub…). . Both do a good job of managing version control, and currently their users are pretty evenly split. The difference between the two is mainly in the way information is presented. Which one to use is a matter of personal preference, but there are statistics that show that users occasionally encounter minor problems with both tools.

M2Eclipse

M2Eclipse (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/mav…). , or M2E for short, is the preferred way to integrate the Maven build tool into Eclipse, so that each save you make triggers a Maven build project and not just Eclipse. A well-designed POM (Project Object Model) avoids the hassle of having to remember Maven’s XML schema, although you can still edit the original XML. The figure above shows the various code dependencies.

Unnecessary Code Detector

When we need to clean up the Code and remove those who do not need to Code fragments, Unnecessary Code Detector (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/unn…). You can get the job done. When you click the button, the tool displays a flag telling you which methods are no longer in use. In addition, the tool flags other coding errors, which is useful to use before committing your code to the repository.

SonarLint

Solving whitespace and Tab problems is something that many programmers have to do, and the lingting tool helps automate it. SonarLint (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/son…). Bring the power of Lint to Eclipse. You can run Lint for a long time before you examine your code, and its internal code review mechanism will help you with whitespace and tabs.

JRebel

Debugging code is never easy, and it’s even harder if your code is very complex to build. Equal (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/jre…). Is a very intelligent Java agent that can change code and insert it into already running code. I’ve been using JRebel for a long time and it’s very powerful and you can try JRebel before you rebuild or re-run your code. This is perfect for Eclipse, which has done most of the work right from the start.

TestNG

Writing good unit tests for code can be more important than writing the code itself. TestNG (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/tes…). Integrate your tests with Eclipse so you can run them easily. When compiled, results are produced, and the tests are more integrated than ever.

JSweet

JSweet (github.com/cincheo/jsw…). You can convert Java code into JavaScript code. Programmers who want to switch from Java to JavaScript can continue to write Java code. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time typing code, you can use TypeScript, which eventually translates to JavaScript. This plug-in for Eclipse lets you do most of the functionality in Java code and then generate JavaScript at the end.

Bytecode Outline

Most programmers don’t have the opportunity to understand what’s going on inside the Java stack. We can use a high-level programming language to achieve the desired functionality. But when you want to dig deep into the internal mechanisms to try to make your code run faster, it’s useful to look at the actual Java bytecode. If you’re a real programmer, you’ll be interested in deeper things. The Bytecode Outline (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/byt…). Is the tool that opens the window to the soul of the code.

PyDev

If you suspect somewhat to the popularity of Python program, so might as well see PyDev (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/pyd…). , is a powerful plug-in that lets Python developers bid farewell to the command line and enjoy Eclipse. Not only does it support the basic syntax, but it also supports popular Python frameworks such as Django, which pushes Django code to the Google App Engine. It is a complete development plugin for Python developers.

Nodeclipse

Building server applications using JavaScript has long been popular among programmers. Now the Nodeclipse (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/nod…). Plugins free developers from the command line with weird parameter flags and countless scripts, and replace them with a highly integrated development environment that is very friendly and easy to use. Sure, you can still write Node.js code from the command line and the VI editor, but why bother memorizing a lot of commands?

Scala IDE

Scala has long been attractive to developers who prefer functional languages, providing the production structure and support for functional languages while working with a large code base from the Java world. Scala runs on the JVM and can link to any JAR file. So it’s no surprise that Scala enthusiasts are creating a Scala IDE(scala-ide.org/) for Eclipse to take advantage of the power of Eclipse to build their favorite applications.

Kotlin

Many people think of Kotlin as a simplified version of Java. Kotlin is highly sought after by Android developers for its rich functional programming features, excellent handling of null values, interoperability with Java, and ability to generate JavaScript and native code. If you want to join the Kotlin trend, then in view of the Eclipse Kotlin (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/kot…). Plugins are your best bet.

YEdit

Not everyone is crazy about using JSON to store data these days. Another popular approach today is YAML. Like the tree structure, the data is almost identical, and it uses indentation instead of braces. YEdit (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/yed…). YAML is a simple tool to create YAML files. The basic concept is easy to understand, but sometimes you need a little help with indentation.

UML Designer

I don’t understand throughout UML (unified modeling language) what is the attraction, but there is still a considerable number of people like it, like to use from Obeo Designer Eclipse plugin UML (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/uml…). . UML is a standard for specifying, creating, and documenting object oriented programming project elements. When you draw a rectangle, everyone can see what you’re trying to do. The plug-in also allows you to further define an XML tree representation of UML. If you like the UML, you may also like UML Lab Class Diagram Editor (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/uml…). UML and Java Generator (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/uml…). .

ImageJ

Eclipse is usually used by programmers, but as computers infiltrate more science, more and more scientists and programmers are emerging. Indeed, it’s hard to find a scientist who can’t write code at all. ImageJ (marketplace.eclipse.org/content/ima…). Is a powerful image analysis program that revolutionizes the way large amounts of visual data are collected. If you run it in Eclipse, you can write custom code that automatically collects and collates all the data you need for your next paper.