The Eclipse Foundation is shipping a revision to its CDT (C/C++ development tool) IDE (integrated development environment). CDT 3.0 features faster parsing, easier plug-in authoring, new indexer options, and a more configurable build system, including user-definable environment variables. Most embedded Linux tools vendors ship IDEs based on Eclipse and CDT.

Eclipse is a cross-platform framework for multi-vendor tools integration. It originally supported Java development. The first version of CDT shipped in March of 2003. Since then, CDT has enabled Eclipse to become the tools platform of choice for a growing number of embedded Linux OS and tools companies, including TimeSys, Wind River, MontaVista, LynuxWorks, Sysgo, Enea, and possibly others. Additionally, Eclipse tools are offered by chip companies such as Intel and Texas Instruments, and software companies such as Devicescape, to name a few.

According to the Eclipse Foundation, the CDT Project provides a functional and extensible C and C++ integrated development environment (IDE) for the Eclipse platform. Claimed new features of CDT 3.0 include:

• Faster parsing — The C/C++ parser is faster and more accurate
• DOM-based language backend — A DOM (document object model) makes “everything from the C/C++ outliner to searching and refactoring” more accessible to plug-in developers.
• Indexer selection — Source indexers are now pluggable components, allowing users to select from no indexing, CTags utility-based indexing, and CDT parser-based indexing.
• Enhanced managed build system configuration — CDT 3.0 provides control over output artifact and extension, pre- and post-build command execution, and per-project and configuration environment variable settings.
• Build environment control — Configurable environmental variables when launching external build commands. Settings are configurable through standard make and managed build C/C++ project properties, or can be set when creating new projects from the new C/C++ project wizard.
• Increased support for tool integrators — Managed build system delivers better support for those who extend CDT, including ISVs and OEMs.

The CDT Project is a second-level Eclipse project under the aegis of the Eclipse tools project. Other Eclipse tool projects include GEF (graphical editor framework), EMF (Eclipse modeling framework), COBOL (common business object language), VE (visual edit), and UML2 (unified markup language, version two).

The CDT Project is led by QNX, which was among the first embedded vendors to embrace Eclipse. QNX launched its Eclipse-based “Momentics” toolsuite in June of 2002, and added support for Linux hosts in February of 2004.

Mike Milinkovich, executive director of Eclipse.org, said, “The scalability, performance, and extensibility of CDT 3.0 are cornerstone achievements for the Eclipse community.”

TimeSys CTO Manas Saksena said, “We're looking forward to enhancing [CDT 3.0] for use as a cross-platform development solution for resource-constrained embedded targets.”

TI's worldwide marketing manager, Juan Alvarez, said, “[CDT 3.0] contains significant improvements that will benefit Code Composer Essentials, our Eclipse-based IDE for TI's MSP430 platform of ultra-low-power MCUs.”

 
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