Chapter 1. Essential Eclipse
If you're reading this book, you're
most likely a Java programmer, and you know how finicky Java can be
at times. Missed import statements, forgotten
variable declarations, omitted semicolons, garbled syntax,
typos—all these problems will cause the Java command-line
compiler, javac, to cough in your face and display
pages of annoying error messages. The error messages tell you that
javac knows what the error is, so why
doesn't it just fix the problem and let you get on
developing?
Because
javac can't fix the problem; it
isn't an editor. That makes long streams of errors
scrolling off the page an all-too-common experience for Java
developers, and leaves them with the feeling that Java is too prickly
about what can go wrong. To change all that, you can use an
integrated development environment (IDE), which will not only catch
errors before you try to compile, but also suggest solutions. Java is
badly in need of a good IDE, and a number of candidates are
available, but the premiere Java IDE these days is the one this book
is all about: Eclipse. You can see Eclipse in action in Figure 1-1.
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