UX/IDE

Work in progress.

This page is concerned with capturing user experience plans for Eclipse-based IDE in Mars.

Installation

Windows

Via Installer

Download the installer, eclipse-installer.exe

Double-click to launch.

Automatically unpacks, configures itself, and updates as necessary.

If a JRE cannot be found, provide help so that the user can download an install an appropriate JVM. Give preference to Java 8.

Starts in "simple" mode.

Simple Mode

Wizard with 5-7 pages:

• Select a package definition
• Pick a version of the JRE
  • If the selected package includes JDT, warn user if the selected JRE is not a JDK
• Specify location (with reasonable defaults)
• Configure default preferences (on/off checkboxes)
• Ask user if an icon should be added to the desktop
• Ask user to register an Eclipse Foundation account (optional)
• Click "Finish"

After installation, installer quits and all temporary files are removed (only the exe remains).

Advanced Mode

• Select a package definition
• Select a workspace configuration
• Allow customization of every setting
• Configure default preferences
• Ask user if an icon should be added to the desktop
• Ask user to register an Eclipse Foundation account (optional)

Launching

The installer adds a standard launch entry/icon to the start menu and (optionally, based on the user's selection during installation) the desktop (see bug 459589).

Notes:

• Remember user state; e.g. if the user switches to advanced mode, open in that mode on subsequent launches
• The preferences configuration should be a single page (or a small number of pages with groups of preferences)
  • The first time through, the changes made by the user to the defaults is retained
  • On subsequent launches, the user should be given the option (on by default) to override their defaults with changed values (only if there are changes)
• Remember if the user has already registered for an account; don't ask again

Questions:

• Is there value in asking a user to "login" if they already have an account?
  • Not sure if there is value in logging in during installation

Bundle Pools

By default, all installations use bundle pools. This can only be turned off in advanced mode.

The bundle pool currently manifests as a USER_HOME/.p2 directory. The average user attaches no meaning to "p2"; should the bundle pool be placed under USER_HOME/.eclipse by default? (see bug 461049.

Via Packages

The standard packages download is available as an option.

The old limitation of the build-in decompression software in Windows failing on the long file names in our package downloads is still an issue.

Use a robust decompression software package to decompress the package download into the directory of choice.

Double-click on the eclipse.exe to launch.

Linux

Use standard Linux software repositories to install official release versions of Eclipse (see bug 442591).

On Fedora:

yum install eclipse-jdt eclipse-cdt eclipse-egit

and

yum update eclipse-jdt ...

Or...

Download installation/configuration tool from the eclipse.org website. There is no native executable so the download must be unpacked and executed.

• Consider adding the installer to the Fedora repository.