My trials and tribulations with Eclipse, the IBM-initiated and sponsored open-source development platform that supports many languages including Java, C, C++, C# and other languages. I'm looking forward to PHP support.

• Eclipse - Website - Documentation
• EclipseZone - an Eclipse Community

Installation

You'll want the core installation and then appropriate plug-ins. Then, check out info on Java (and PHP if interested).

Core

This is pretty easy overall:

• Make sure you have the latest JRE installed.
• Download Eclipse and unzip and put in your Program Files directory (assumption you are using Windows).
• Make an icon to the installation.

Visual Editor

I still use AWT since it's supported on all platforms without an additional installation. I'd like to use Swing at some point, but not for what I'm doing now.

• Get the latest release and its dependancies (EMF and GEF).
• Copy the files to the Eclipse installation directory.
• If using SWT, get the SWT library as well.
• Note that to use the VE you may have to right-click on the file and open with the VE.