Java™ Application Development on Linux - Dator

252Chapter 10Integrated <strong>Development</strong> EnvironmentsSDK contains the Eclipse Platform (which you need), the Java <strong>Development</strong>Toolkit (which you need), and the Eclipse Platform <strong>Development</strong> Kit (whichyou need only if you plan to develop plug-ins for Eclipse). But by downloadingthe Eclipse SDK package, you get everything you need in one go. You couldalso download the Eclipse source package and build the whole thing yourself;save that for a spare week. For now, start with a prebuilt binary.If you scroll down, you will see a collection of files that have “platform”in their names. You will note that there are two choices of Linux binary: oneis Motif, the other GTK. If you are not familiar with these, Motif and GTKare two common extensions to the X Window API that provide widgets andother common functions and UI features. One of these, Motif, is rather oldand (to brashly add opinion) dated in appearance, but it is very stable and mature.The other, GTK, stands for GIMP Toolkit and was developed to supportthe remarkable GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP). There are otherwidget/UI libraries that run on top of X Window, notably the Qt library usedby KDE.So, which to use? If you read the documentation on the Eclipse Web site,you will see that the Motif version has been more heavily tested and is availablefor other platforms than Linux. This is probably because Motif is standard onmost commercial UNIX versions, and thus is where emphasis was placed to getthe “most bang for the buck” in development and testing.However, we much prefer the look of the GTK version and, to date, havefound no major problems with it, so that is what we use for our examples.There should be no functional difference between the two—merely differencesin the look and feel of menus, toolbars, and dialogs. One reason to select Motifmight be if you are working in a mixed environment of Linux and other UNIXplatforms, where you may be forced to use the Motif version on some platforms,and do not want the “cognitive dissonance” of switching betweenthe two. 6So, step one: Download eclipse-SDK-2.1.2-linux-gtk.zip.The Eclipse platform is a “generic IDE.” You will see the term perspectiveall over Eclipse. A perspective is kind of a collection of tools in the IDE. Thepackage you just downloaded contains a generic perspective called Resource. A6. Please note that the differences are fewer and smaller than the differences involved inswitching between any common X Window desktop and Microsoft Windows. If you canhandle that (and many of us do every day), switching between Motif and GTK versions ofEclipse will be no problem for you.