How to write a plugin for Eclipse? [closed]

Question

How can I start writing a plugin for Eclipse?

I've looked for documentation, but unfortunately there is very little or it's poor, so what articles can recommended?

Answer 1

There are some pretty good resources and tutorials on the main Eclipse and IBM's site. One of the best ways is to pick an open source plug-in that has some similar features to what you want to do and start to dissect it.

• PDE Does Plug-ins
• Plug-in development 101, Part 1: The fundamentals
• Eclipse Plugins Exposed, Part 1: A First Glimpse
• Developing Eclipse plug-ins

Answer 2

Eclipse has a pretty good "Your First Plug-in" tutorial. If it is confusing, I'm sure they would greatly appreciate your feedback. Keep in mind that Eclipse is essentially Java, so if you don't have a good grasp of Java go for general Java tutorials first, and then come back to Eclipse development.

O'Reilly has two good Eclipse Plugin tutorials:

• Eclipse Plugins Exposed
• Develop Your Own Plugins for Eclipse

They not only go through the simple code examples, but give you screen shots of the process since a lot of work is done through wizard type interface windows.

If these aren't helpful, perhaps you could be more specific as to what is difficult to follow.

-Adam