New York; LinuxWorld — (press release excerpt) — Today, eclipse.org made a fully functional C and C++ Integrated Development Environment available for evaluation with the eclipse platform on Linux workstations. The C/C++ tools, which complement existing Java language support, make the eclipse platform the first full function, tightly integrated, multi-language tools environment available as open source. The beta C/C++ IDE is available for immediate download at eclipse.org. Two founding members of eclipse.org, IBM and Red Hat, have joined together to sponsor this work.

The eclipse platform is a new open source environment for creating, integrating and deploying application development tools for use across a broad range of computing technology. It provides a common set of services and establishes the framework, infrastructure and interactive workbench used by project developers to build application software and related elements. The eclipse platform provides source code building blocks, plug-in frameworks and running examples that facilitate application tools development.

C and C++ developers that want to deploy Linux based projects with a Linux development environment will benefit from advanced facilities that help to speed project related activities. The C/C++ IDE for the eclipse platform includes a GUI based source code editor with advanced code browsing and navigation features like code assist, syntax based color highlighting and integrated help facilities. The integrated C/C++ debugger presents many of the views that eclipse platform developers are already familiar with, and adds new ones for inspecting registers and storage. It also provides direct access to an underlying command line interface for forming advanced debugger requests.

“This development highlights the extensibility of this architecture and the commitment of the development community to enhance the eclipse platform,” said Michael Tiemann, chief technical officer, Red Hat, Inc. and founding Steward of eclipse.org. “Virtually every software development group we've spoken with is looking for an IDE that supports C and C++ in addition to Java. This includes projects built in-house and 3rd-party applications running on the full gamut of enterprise servers through embedded platforms, including new projects developed for native Linux and the porting of existing applications to Linux. C and C++ are must-haves for Linux, and with C and C++ support, the eclipse platform is on the way to becoming a must-have development environment for Linux.”

“A broad range of developers need the power of combining C/C++ and Java elements in their solutions for a variety of target deployment platforms,” said Lee Nackman, vice president of application development tools, IBM Software Group and founding Steward of eclipse.org. “This new C/C++ IDE illustrates the revolutionary power of the eclipse platform's extensible design to bring new capabilities to the community at a rapid pace. We expect the work of eclipse.org to continue to be the foundation of our development tools product line at IBM.”

The eclipse.org community welcomes new member companies and individuals that want to collaborate and contribute to the C/C++ project. It's easy to sign-up on-line. Full details of the eclipse.org consortium, membership and the design of the eclipse platform are available at the consortium's website.

eclipse.org is an open consortium of software development tool vendors that has formed the core of a community interested in collaborating to create betterdevelopment environments and product integration. The community shares an interest in creating products that are inter-operable in an easy to use way based upon plug-in technology. By collaborating and sharing core integration technology, tool vendors can concentrate on their areas of expertise and the creation of new development technology. eclipse.org now includes members and founding steward companies: Borland, IBM, MERANT, QNX Software Systems, Rational Software, RedHat, SuSE, TogetherSoft, and WebGain. Hundreds of thousands of downloads have been logged at the eclipse.org website.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.