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The Eclipse documentation and website are still a bit too thick for me, a total Eclipse noob. Could someone explain just what a perspective is in terms suitable for non-IDE users, and what is involved in making new perspectives?
So far I'm guessing that a "perspective" is merely a canned arrangement of windows within Eclipse, and that one can choose one of several for e.g.different phases of work on a project. But I get the impression it's something bigger and more powerful.
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An eclipse perspective is the name given to an initial collection and arrangement of views and an editor area. The default perspective is called java. An eclipse window can have multiple perspectives open in it but only one perspective is active at any point of time.
In top right corner of the Eclipse window, click the Open Perspective icon (Figure 4-1). The Open Perspective context menu appears (Figure 4-2). The Open Perspective dialog box appears (Figure 4-3). Select Mission Control and click OK.
You can always return a perspective to its default state by right-clicking the perspective button in the right top corner of the Eclipse IDE and clicking Reset. Note that this operation cannot be undone.
You've pretty much got it in what you're describing. The thing I would add is that "perspectives" come laid out in a predefined way, but they don't have to stay that way. You can change the window arrangement, add and remove views, etc., and those changes stay with those perspectives.
So, the idea of a perspective, is to allow you to setup a collection of windows and views that works well with your particular workflow, and the way you think.
In Eclipse, go under "Window -> Customize Perspective...", and you'll see a bunch of options for adding/removing things. But don't freak - you can always go back to "Window -> Reset Perspective..." to reset the layout back to the way it was when you first installed Eclipse.
You can also save your current perspective settings/layout by going to "Window -> Save Perspective As...", and save it under an arbitrary name, such as "DarenW's favorite perspective," or whatever you like.
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