10 Things To Do After Installing Eclipse

Well, I will not list exactly 10 things someone could do after installing Eclipse, but I always liked these cool titles, like 10 Things to do after installing Ubuntu or 10 ways to boost your laptop and decided to name my post similarly. Maybe by time it will actually be 10 things, or even keep adding and reach the even cooler 20 Things to do after installing Eclipse!

So, let’s start working! You have already downloaded Eclipse Mars on Ubuntu 16.04 running Ambience, unzipped it in some directory, launched it and selected a proper workspace. Here are some things I usually do after I download a new version of Eclipse, in order to configure it the way I like.

Change eclipse.ini. This is the text file in Eclipse’s installation directory, which contains command-line options that are added to the command line used when Eclipse is started up. I present below an example of eclipse.ini file I usually use. There are some eclipse-version-specific values in it, that I present as variables, like ${equinox-hanlder-version} or ${equinox-launcher-version}, that are set by the specific eclipse version you have downloaded, and there is also the ${java-version} variable, where you should put the path of your local Java.
```
 -startup
 ${equinox-handler-version}
 --launcher.library
 ${equinox-launcher-version}
 -product
 org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
 --launcher.defaultAction
 openFile
 -showsplash
 org.eclipse.platform
 --launcher.XXMaxPermSize
 512m
 --launcher.defaultAction
 openFile
 -vm
 ${java-version}
 --launcher.GTK_version
 2
 --launcher.appendVmargs
 -vmargs
 -Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.7
 -XX:MaxPermSize=512m
 -Xms512m
 -Xmx1024m
 -XX:+UseParallelGC
```
The lines that configure the GTK version are there to handle an Ubuntu 16.04 problem that makes Eclipse extremely slow.
If your team does not use the default Code Formatter, but has set its own conventions instead, you can insert your convention file by clicking:

Window → Preferences → Java → Code Style → Formatter → Import → Choose file that contains your team’s conventions → Apply → OK
I prefer to use Package Explorer View instead of the Project Explorer to navigate in my projects:

Window → Show View → Other → Package Explorer

You can then keep or close Project Explorer tab.
You can choose to use spaces instead of tabs while coding. For the Java editor this could be configured in the conventions file described above, but if it is not you can go to

Window → Preferences → Java → Code Style → Formatter → Edit → Identation tab → Use tab character instead of spaces.

You can also edit the tab size here. For text editors:

Window → Preferences → Editors → Text Editors → Insert spaces for tabs

You can also configure Displayed tab width in this panel.
Insert the Terminal View:

Window → Show View → Terminal
Customize Javadoc author tag:

Window → Preferenes → Java → Code Style → Code Templates → Comments → Types → Edit → Configure the author tag as you wish → Apply → OK
I prefer to configure the classic appearence theme:

Window → Preferences → General → Appearence → Theme
Remove trailing whitespace:

Preferences → Java → Editor → Save actions → Perform selected actions on save → Additional actions → Configure → Code organizing tab → Remove trailing whitespace from all lines → Ok to all
Change fonts. In order to change text fonts (Java, XML, HTML files etc):

Window → Preferences → General → Appearence → Colors and Fonts → Search for Text Font (most editor fonts link here) → Edit to choose your favourite.

I prefer DeJa Vu Sans Mono 9, or for low resolution monitors Andale Mono 8. You can also configure Part title font, Terminal Console Font, etc from here.
Configure Proxy:

Window → Preferences → General → Network Connect > Active Provider: Manual, HTTP/HTTPS edit to configure proxy; also make sure SOCKS is clear → Apply → OK
Open pom.xml files as XML by default:

Window → Preferences → Maven → User Interface → Open XML page in the POM editor by default → Apply → OK
Go to Help → Eclipse Marketplace and then find and install Eclipse Moonrise UI Theme. It will provide a nice dark theme for Eclipse. Then, just go to Window → Preferences → General → Appearence and choose MoonRise (standalone). Follow the fine tuning instructions provided in the Github project, to achive even better result.

If the folders with uncommitted changes appear with dark color font on dark background, you can go to: Window → Preferences → General → Appearence → Colors and Fonts → Git → Uncommitted Change (Foreground) and edit to something lighter (e.g. #C8C8C8).
Go to Help → Eclipse Marketplace and then find and install Eclipse Color Theme. It is a plugin that provides a variety of color themes for your editor panel, that can help you customize your IDE. Then go to Window → Preferences → General → Appearence → Color Theme and check the themes yourself. Make sure you give Obsidian a try!
There is a possibility, that when you open the Javadoc view, you see an ugly black background with high contrast white text font. This is a common problem, that needs changes both on Eclipse and on Ubuntu configuration files. In order to change the Javadoc view’s background you can go to Window → Preferences → General → Appearence → Colors and Fonts → Java → Javadoc view background and edit it. The default is #f5f5b5.

This will change view’s background, but you can not configure the Javadoc text color from inside Eclipse. In order to do so, you have to edit Ubuntu current appearence theme’s configuration file - for me it is Ambience - and specifically the gtk version Eclipse uses - for me gtk2. The parameter you have to change is tooltip_fg_color. You can also change tooltip_bg_color to change the hover Javadoc message, that appears when you put your mouse over a Java class, in Eclipse’s Java Editor view. I created these aliases to automate the procedure; you can include them in your ${HOME}/.bashrc file:
```
 # Eclipse Javadoc background
 export GTKRC=/usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-2.0/gtkrc
 export ECLIPSE_JAVADOC_CONF=${ECLIPSE_WORKSPACE}/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.runtime/.settings/org.eclipse.ui.workbench.prefs

 alias eclipseDarkJavadocBackground="sed -ie 's/tooltip_fg_color:#[a-zA-Z0-9]\{6\}/tooltip_fg_color:#dddddd/g' \$GTKRC
 sed -ie 's/tooltip_bg_color:#[a-zA-Z0-9]\{6\}/tooltip_bg_color:#333333/g' \$GTKRC
 sed -ie 's/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.JavadocView.backgroundColor=[0-9]\{1,3\},[0-9]\{1,3\},[0-9]\{1,3\}/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.JavadocView.backgroundColor=51,51,51/g' \$ECLIPSE_JAVADOC_CONF"

 alias eclipseDefaultJavadocBackground="sed -ie 's/tooltip_fg_color:#[a-zA-Z0-9]\{6\}/tooltip_fg_color:#000000/g' \$GTKRC
 sed -ie 's/tooltip_bg_color:#[a-zA-Z0-9]\{6\}/tooltip_bg_color:#f5f5b5/g' \$GTKRC
 sed -ie 's/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.JavadocView.backgroundColor=[0-9]\{1,3\},[0-9]\{1,3\},[0-9]\{1,3\}/org.eclipse.jdt.ui.JavadocView.backgroundColor=245,245,181/g' \$ECLIPSE_JAVADOC_CONF"
```
Restart Eclipse to see effects.
Copy icon.xpm to /usr/share/pixmaps as eclipse.xpm to use it as dash icon.

Wow! It’s actually more than 10! Hope I reach 20 then!