Brief: This article shows you the easy way to install the latest Eclipse version on Ubuntu Linux.
If you are into programming, you can always choose to write programs using the plain old text editors. And that will work for small projects with only a few files, or if you want to write small scripts or snippets.
But if you are considering serious programming or working on a not-so-small project, a normal text editor isn’t going to cut it anymore. You will need tools for organizing file structure, syntax highlighting, debugging, compiling and other necessary things depending on which type of project or language you are working with.
Integrated Development Environment
That is where Integrated Development Environment, or in short IDE, comes in. An IDE combines various tools for seamless development with a specific programming language. Generally, it contains code editor with syntax highlighting, compiler and/or interpreter, debugging tools and other features that are needed to work with that specific language. Multi-language supported IDEs are also available.
Suggested ReadHow To Setup A C++ Development Environment In Ubuntu Linux
Eclipse
Eclipse is one such IDE that is primarily used for Java development. It can also be used with other languages, such as — C++, PHP etc. Other languages support can be added on top of existing installation or they can be installed as separate Eclipse packages.
You can use other modern open source code editors for programming but if you ask me, I’ll always vote for Eclipse. And so, today we are going see how we can install the latest version of Eclipse on Ubuntu.
Installing the latest Eclipse on Ubuntu
Eclipse doesn’t provide an official PPA or an easy way to install the latest version of it on Ubuntu. You can install it from the software center but it will be a real old version. At present, Ubuntu Software Center still has Eclipse version 3.8 which was released in 2012.
Luckily we have a tool available on Ubuntu that can do all the lifting of installing Eclipse for us. It’s called ubuntu-make. Basically, it will download the source code package and dependencies of Eclipse, compile it from the source code and add desktop launcher icons — all of those with just one command!
First, let’s install ubuntu-make on our system. Enter the following commands for installing ubuntu-make:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-desktop/ubuntu-make
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ubuntu-make
Once it’s installed, you are just one command away from getting the latest version of Eclipse on your computer. There are four packages of Eclipse available from ubuntu-make. Installation commands for each of them are listed below:
- Eclipse IDE for Java Developers: If you want to work with Java, enter the following command:
umake ide eclipse - Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers: For Java Enterprise Edition development, use this:
umake ide eclipse-jee - Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers: If you need Eclipse IDE for C/C++ development, use this command:
umake ide eclipse-cpp - Eclipse for PHP Developers: For PHP development, install Eclipse with the following command:
umake ide eclipse-php
That’s all you need to do for getting the latest version of Eclipse IDE. If you want to update the version, use the same commands again. It will overwrite the previous version with the new one.
If you are new to Eclipse or want to know more about it, head over to the official Eclipse website where you can find all kinds of documentation and guides on it.