Atlantis in bits

Usually, our eclipse based IDE consists of two parts: Eclipse SDK and Plug-ins. Different plug-ins combines together and work as an IDE for different purpose. IDEs for different purposes also share some common plug-ins. If we are using CDT and WTP, we have to include not only the basic Eclipse SDK but also some plug-ins like Subversion Plug-in, EMF-SDO in both these two IDEs. Usually, we maintain several copies of the Eclipse SDK and some common plug-ins for different IDEs. However, if we need to update some parts, we have to update in every Eclipse copies.

We can use another approach to install plug-ins. We put link files which point to the location of plug-ins in the links directory, and when Eclipse starts it will look for those locations and load proper plug-ins. Many developers leverage this method to maintain their Eclipse Environments.

I developed a small utility and hope it will make this approach more easily. At first, you need to download a copy of Eclipse SDK and those plug-ins separately.  Then, make directories like below:

d:\eclipse

       |_____base

                    |______eclipse (Eclipse SDK)

      |______bundles

                    |_______WTP
                    |               |_______eclipse
                    |               |                 |_____features
                    |               |                 |_____plug-ins
                    |               |_______.bundle
                    |_______EMF-SDO
                    |_______m2eclipse
                    …………
                    (Some other plugins)

“Base” is the directory storing basic Eclipse SDK and bundles are for plug-ins. In each plug-in directory, create a plain text file named “.bundle” and write the name of the plug-in into it (Actually, this file is unnecessary, I will improve this later). Finally, put following two files under the top “eclipse” directory.

File1: LunarPhase

File2 LunarPhaseHelper

And then launch the LunarPhaseConfig.exe.

new a profile by specifying plug-ins and workspace.

and then you can click the launch button, or click the shortcut button and then run the corresponding “bat” file to raise your customized Eclipse environment.

Still some bugs, I will fix them and add some useful features (example: downloading from update sites) later.