Which eclipse version to use on a Mac? (Carbon or Cocoa)

Question

When i go to the eclipse website (http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/) there are 3 different versions of eclipse for Mac:

• Carbon 32bit
• Cocoa 32bit
• Cocoa 64bit

I'm confused about why there are three version and which one i should be using. (I'm running OSX 10.5 on a MBP)

Solution 1

I say go with the 32-bit Cocoa version unless you want to use Java 6. The 32-bit version will use less memory, and because the 32-bit 1.5 JVM is the client Java VM it's better tuned for UI apps.

If you want to use Java 6 on 10.5, you must use the 64-bit Cocoa version.

You would think there would be a universal 32/64-bit version, but there isn't. The reason there are multiple versions is due to the SWT's (and Eclipse's for that matter) philosophy of one architecture and one windowing system per application. p2/Equinox can't cope with multiple architectures in the same application.

Solution 2

Use Cocoa 64bit, you most likely have a 64 bit processor (unless you know you don't).

Carbon is just the old graphical API, it was replaced by Cocoa.