Using Eclipse as C++ development platform

Albert Einstein once said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity. But I’m not sure about the universe." If only he has been here for a bit more, he would have said "Three things are infinite: the universe, eclipse plugins and human stupidity. But I’m not sure about the universe."

To start developing C and C++ applications on eclipse you need to:

1. Ofcourse If you're not already an eclipsian (how dare you!) you need to download eclipse SDK.
   
   Installing Cygwin:
   
2. Download cygwin. Cygwin is a UNIX®-like environment for Windows that includes a GCC port, along with all necessary development tools, including automake and the GNU Debugger (GDB). Cygwin is built around the cygwin1.dll library.
3. When the download is complete, run setup.exe, click next and then 2nd option, download without install.
4. After choosing a mirror and blabla, make sure you to select the most two important packages, "gcc-g++" and" make".. You will find them under All >> Devel category. Do not skip this step! click next and wait for the download to finish.
5. Rerun setup.exe, but this time with the 3rd option, install from a local directory.
6. Now you should have a window with the title "Choose Installation directory"Choose UNIX file type and choose the directory where you want to install cygwin.
7. Click next, on the window with the title "Select local package directory", select the directory which you have used when downloading in step 4.
8. Select the packages to install and still make sure to select "gcc-g++" and" make".. You will find them under All >> Devel category. Do not skip this step! click next and wait for the installation to finish.
9. To check cygwin version open cygwin bash shell cygwin.bat and type "cygcheck -V" you should see
   "cygcheck version 1.43
   System Checker for Cygwin
   Copyright 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 Red Hat, Inc.
   Compiled on May 25 2004"
10. To make the tools also available in a dos window add the Cygwin bin directory to your path.
    e.g.: PATH=%PATH%;C:\Tools\cygwin\bin
11. To verify if the utilities are installed, In a dos window type: g++ --version
    You should see:
    g++ (GCC) 3.3.3 (cygwin special)
    Copyright (C) 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is NO
    warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
    
12. type: make --version
    You should see:
    GNU Make 3.80
    Copyright (C) 2002 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    This is free software; see the source for copying conditions.
    There is NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
    PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
    
    Installing CDT
    
13. Open eclipse. Go to Help >> Software updates >> find and install. Select Search for new features and click next.
    
14. Create a new remote site with a Name, CDT and URL "http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/callisto".
15. Select this remote site to search and click next. Proceed as the installer suggests until it's done. It should ask to restart eclipse.
16. Congrats! Now you can start developing C++, but remains a concrete example.
    
    Creating a project
    
17. To create a new project, go to File >> New >> Project and select C++ >> Standard Make C++ Project. Give it a name and click finish.
    
18. Now you can right click the new project in the workspace and New >> File. Give it a name .cpp for example "test.cpp"
19. Open the file and go on write your C++ program. For example
    #include "iostream"
    using namespace std;
    
    
    int main() {
    cout << "This is a demonstration! \n";
    return 0;
    }
20. Now you need a make file. Right click the project and New >> File. Name it "makefile". Here's a sample makefile:
    CC = g++
    LN = link.exe
    EXENAME = test
    
    all: $(EXENAME).exe
    [tab]@echo ********************************
    [tab]@cmd /c $(EXENAME)
    $(EXENAME).exe: $(EXENAME).o
    [tab]$(CC) -o $(EXENAME).exe $(EXENAME).o
    $(EXENAME).o: $(EXENAME).cpp
    [tab]$(CC) -c $(EXENAME).cpp
    clean:
    [tab]rm $(EXENAME).exe
    [tab]rm *.obj
21. Please note you need to change the EXENAME to match your .cpp file. And also replace the [tab] with an actual tab not spaces!
    
22. Now right click the project and then "Build project". Voilaaa!
    

Happy Eclipsing !

--
"I pretended to be somebody I wanted to be until finally I became that person. Or he became me." - Cary Grant