README_Eclipse_MacOSX.md

Installation of Eclipse (Kepler) on MacOSX, with plugins for SCons, Git, GitHub, and Python

Install Eclipse

There exists an Eclipse plugin for SCons, called SConsolidator. As of January, 2014, this plugin works only with the Kepler version of Eclipse. To download and install this version of Eclipse, go to:

Eclipse Kepler SR1 Downloads

and download the MacOSX (Cocoa 64) version. The file should be called:

eclipse-cpp-kepler-SR1-macosx-cocoa-x86_64.tar.gz

Unpack this somewhere in your own user space. I chose to install it directly underneath my home directory, but of course you can install it where you like.

$ cd
$ sudo tar -xvzf ~/Downloads/eclipse-cpp-kepler-SR1-macosx-cocoa-x86_64.tar.gz

Start up Eclipse from the command line with:

$ ~/eclipse/eclipse

You might also find it useful to add the Eclipse app to your dock, permanently, to make it easier to start up in the future.

When you start up Eclipse, you will get a window asking you to choose a workspace. The default is usually /Users/****/Documents/workspace. This is fine, but you might want to choose someplace else. Make sure to click the 'Use this as the default ...' radio button so that you will not get asked this every time.

When Eclipse finally starts up, you can click on the "X" on the welcome page, and it should take you to the Project Explorer page. This is the main view that you will probably end up using most of the time.

Install the SConsolidator Plugin

In order for Eclipse to work with SCons, one has to install a plugin called SConsolidator. To do this, do the following:

a) Go to Help->Install New Software

b) In the Install window that comes up, in the "Work with" field, enter:

http://www.sconsolidator.com/update

and click on "Add..."

c) Specify the name as "SConsolidator"

d) Check the Eclipse Plug-In for SCons radio button, then hit Next> and follow the installation through.

e) After the installation, Eclipse will need to be restarted, which it should do automatically.

When Eclipse restarts, it will ask you about setting the path to SCons. Set this up now. Check to see where SCons is installed by doing "which scons" from a terminal window. For me, it is in /usr/local/bin/scons, and so I entered that for the path to the SCons executable.

To change the SCons build options (at any time), you can go to Eclipse->Preferences, and then expand the SCons tag, to reveal options for Build Settings, Performance vs. Accuracy, and Warnings. In particular, if you want to build the standalone executables, you can add 'standalone=1' to the SCons Options in Build Settings.

Install PyDev for Python Support

PyDev includes a nice Python editor with appropriate syntax highlighting, as well as providing the "mouse-over" documentation features of Eclipse for those things that are written in Python - namely SCons.

As of this writing, Eclipse Kepler does not play so nicely with PyDev-3.X, and so we will install PyDev-2.X instead. The reason may be related to issues with Java 1.6 vs. 1.7, in fact.

a) Go to Help->Install New Software

b) In the Install window that comes up, in the "Work with" field, enter:

http://pydev.org/updates

and click on "Add..."

c) Specify the name as "PyDev" and hit return

d) IMPORTANT: Uncheck the radio button to show versions other than the latest version in the bottom portion of this window.

e) Look for the PyDev for Eclipse Version 2.8.2, and check this radio button.

d) Proceed with the installation.

e) IMPORTANT: At some point it may ask you to allow a certain security certificate - you actually have to check the radio button in the top part of the window and THEN accept the certificate.

f) After the installation, Eclipse will need to be restarted, which it should do automatically.

Restart Eclipse; you should now have access to PyDev. You should see it by going to Eclipse->About Eclipse->Installation Details->Installed Software

Setting up Git within Eclipse

Much of this comes from this article.

a) Basic Configuration

Select Window → Preferences → Team → Git

Under the field for Cloning Repositories, choose a location (locally) for storing respositories that you will eventually clone to create.

Select Window → Preferences → Team → Git → Configuration

Choose the User Settings Tab:

If you have already been using git on your system, you should see that the user and email fields are already filled out. If they are now, you can fill them out now. The 'location' field should be (HOME)/.gitconfig, where (HOME) is your normal home directory

b) Git Staging View

Select Window → Show View → Other... → Git → Git Staging

You should now see a Git Staging tab in the Console area of the main Eclipse window. Basically, this window will give you all information that would be reported by 'git status' at the command line.

c) Activate the Git Toolbar