Is it possible to have CDT and Java IDE together in Eclipse?

Question

I have an Eclipse CDT environment up and running and customised just the way I like it. I'm also going to be heavily dealing with Java.

I don't want to install a separate version of Eclipse just to get the Java features, as I'll be switching between C -> C++ -> ADA -> Java quite often. Because of this I'd like the one IDE to support all the languages.

At the moment I've got C/C++ and Ada working together (CDT + GNAT workbench).

How can I get the Eclipse Java support installed with out installing Eclipse from scratch again?

Solution

I've had both installed together without problems. In fact I had the JDT, CDT, PyDev all working side by side sometimes I even had projects containing code from all three languages and it all worked just dandy. All the bits that were supposed to be ready for the others were provided you order your builders correctly. (I had an API implemented in C++ with support for Java, Python and C++ all in the same project).

However since you already have your set-up running just the way you want I would strongly recommend that you would backup your installation of Eclipse AND your .metadata folder in your workspace (I usually just zip the whole workspace when I tinker with Eclipse like that)

Then you can just get in your plugin manager and get the JDT plugin to install itself from the update site. Frankly I do not anticipate that you will get any problems. You can use different workspaces to separate CDT and Java but unless you really need this clear separation I would recommend that you do everything under the same workspace. Switching workspace in Eclipse pretty much means you have to launch a new instance of it with all the loading and waiting this implies.

Mixing language types in the same project might require that you tinker with the eclipse project files manually. Sometimes the gui will not offer you to have multiple aspects for the same projects. Otherwise switching from one language to the other is transparent. You can switch perspective or you can build your own perspective with just the views you want. Again there was no problem mix-matching views from CDT with views from other languages/plugins.

This is probably the biggest strength of Eclipse, Provide a unified development environment regardless of the work you are doing. This being said, not all language are supported equally, good news for you is that the Java plugin is a lot more rich and mature than the CDT.

Comments

[Abhijith Madhav]

I used the installation feature in eclipse to install a pack/plugin called "Eclipse Java Development Tools". After the same I have not got a "Create java project" option as I expected. My "eclipse installation Details" shows me that something called "Eclipse Java Development Tools" is a part of my configuration. However I don't see a single JDT related plugin in the plugin's installation directory which are otherwise a part of a separate Java IDE installation. Is there some kind of pointer you could give me to solve this problem?

[Newtopian]

it seems your plugin was correctly installed. From what I can see you should be able to get by selecting the Java development perspective (Window-Perspective-Java). Each plugin will modify the UI so choosing the correct perspective will bring to the forefront the specific options of this plugin. This said you should always have access to creating new project by selecting File-New Project... where the Java type project(s) should be available in the template tree of the new Project dialog. Hope this helped

[Kenny Cason]

Worked like a charm for me, and I just keep them in the same workspace. When you switch between C++ and Java projects it should automatically switch between C++ and Java perspectives as well.