Things lacking in Eclipse for Perl

Using EPIC

• You can't fold code on 'if' blocks, or any arbitrary block (only on subs and perldocs).
• Word wrap causes the line numbers to be wrong (a single wrapped line has more than one line number)
• Syntax highlighting is not a perfect fit (perhaps this or these might help):
• POD and heredoc are both marked as 'Comment2' and so can't be different colours
• Even though there is a 'Markup' entry, it doesn't seem to be used for POD
• The colour of dollar signs can't be changed (it's the same as the variable name in vim)
• Neither variables nor special characters change colour within interpolated strings (as in vim)

Create Eclipse project with existing files

• Have your workspace as the directory above the directory containing your files.
• Create the project with a name that is the same as your files directory.

The problem is, if there are lots of (unrelated) files, Eclipse will take a long time to load up.

There are other options, i.e.:

• Create a new folder
• Click the 'Advanced' button
• Link to an external folder

Eclipse features

• Syntax highlighting
• Code folding
• Go to source of library
• Look up Javadoc/Perldoc
• Automatic refactoring
• File navigator

3rd party javadocs in Eclipse

• Download and unzip the 3rd party package's source
• Open the Package Explorer view in Eclipse
• Navigate to [your project] | Referenced libraries | [3rd party library] | right-click | Properties
• Enter the source directory in the Java Source Attachment | Location path

There is also a Javadoc Location field that accepts a URL (didn't work for XMLUnit or JUnit though)

How to run a Selenium/JUnit test

• Install Eclipse 3.5
• Download JUnit
• Download Selenium RC
• Run java -jar selenium-server-1.0.3/selenium-server.jar
• Create a Java project in Eclipse
• Right-click on the project name and go to Properties | Java Build Path | Add External JARs
• add JUnit JAR
• all the Selenium Server JARs
• all the Selenium Java JARs
• Run a program like this (This one doesn't actually work; the assertion fails)

package com.example;

import junit.framework.TestCase;
import com.thoughtworks.selenium.DefaultSelenium;
import com.thoughtworks.selenium.Selenium;

public class GoogleTest extends TestCase {
 private static Selenium selenium;
 protected void setUp() {
  selenium = new DefaultSelenium("localhost" , 4444 , "*firefox", "http://www.google.com");
  selenium.start();
  selenium.setSpeed("2000");
 }
 public final void testTitle() {
  selenium.open("http://www.google.com");
  selenium.type("//input[@title='Google Search']", "I am using selenium");
  selenium.click("//input[@value = 'Google Search']");
  assertTrue(selenium.isElementPresent("/html/head/title"));
 }
 protected void tearDown() {
  selenium.stop();
 }
} 

oXygen Eclipse plugin

oXygen XML/XSLT: http://www.oxygenxml.com/download_oxygenxml_editor.html#Eclipse

• it's not all that, but step-through-debugging does work
• have to manually set the file association defaults to Oxygen types
• unreadable default colour scheme for Oxygen filetypes. It is difficult to import syntax-highlighting preferences in Eclipse. You're better off setting them yourself.
• to use step-through debugging, you need to:
• 'Configure Transformation Scenario' (under XML/XSL menu - it appears when you open an XML or XSL file)
• open the 'Debug Scenario' perspective in the XML/XSL menu
• setting the input parameters for debugging is fiddly
• the XML file being used as input must be "part of the project"

Eclipse notes

• File associations are under Preferences | General | Editors | File Associations
• Background colour is under: Preferences | General | Editors | Text editors 
• and Preferences | oXygen | Editor
• Syntax highlighting is under: Preferences | XML | XML Files | Editor | Syntax Coloring
• and Preferences | oXygen | Editor | Syntax highlighting
• Eclipse plugins site: http://eclipse-plugins.info/eclipse/
• How to import/export syntax highlighting colours
• No word wrap!

Eclipse plugins

Eclipse 3.5

• Target Management (Remote file browsing, via SSH): http://www.eclipse.org/dsdp/tm/
• works great (but sshfs is simpler)
• Instead of that, see also http://wills-tech-notes.blogspot.com/2010/07/remote-file-browsing.html
• XSLT: http://www.eclipse.org/webtools/
• can't download through update manager, it's too slow
• supposed to offer XML/XSL features, but I can't see any
• Oxygen XML/XSLT: http://www.oxygenxml.com/download_oxygenxml_editor.html#Eclipse
• Works. To use step-through debugging,you need to open the 'Debug Scenario' in the XML or XSL menu (it appears when you open an XML or XSL file)
• vim -- why not use vim editor inside Eclipse? No good solution, apparently (none of these were tested):
• http://www.viplugin.com/viplugin/ (2009 - costs a few pounds)
• http://eclim.org/vim/ (recent)
• http://vrapper.sourceforge.net/ (recent)
• http://sourceforge.net/projects/vimplugin/ (2007, but states it supports syntax files)
• Full Screen: http://code.google.com/p/eclipse-fullscreen/ (just works) 
• P4WSAD: Perforce plugin: http://www.perforce.com/perforce/products/p4wsad.html (had to download zip file from FTP site and install manually, as automatic install URL was too slow)
• Plugin can be slow to use if you browse the repository directly, but is faster if you check out, then do right-click | Import as project, and use the standard Eclipse Navigator or Project tab to work with the files.