!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//IETF//DTD HTML//EN"> Eclipse Downloading, Installing, and Testing

Eclipse Downloading, Installing, and Testing

Install a new version of Eclipse to use with MinGW C++

MinGW means Minimalist GNU for Windows: GNU is a source of open source programming tools (GNU stands for GNU is Not Unix).

Before starting this handout, you should have first downloaded the files needed by MinGW C++. Now you will download a version of Eclipse that is already set up to use MinGW.

You may want to print these instructions before proceeding, so that you can refer to them while downloading and installing MinGW and Eclipse. Or, just keep this document in your browser. You should read each step completely before performing the action that it describes.

Eclipse: Version 4.4 (Luna)

The Eclipse download requires about 200 MB of disk space; keep it on your machine, in case you need to re-install Eclipse. When installed, Eclipse requires an additional 200 MB of disk space.

Downloading Eclipse

  1. Click Eclipse

    The top of the following page will appear in your browser.

    In this handout we will download Eclipse Standard 4.4 for Windows 32 Bit (the current version is 4.5 Mars); if your computer uses Windows, continue below; otherwise look for the pull-down list showing Windows and instead choose either Mac OS X (Cocoa) or Linux and then continue below.

    It is critical that Java, MinGW, and Eclipse are either all 32 Bit or are all 64 Bit (and only if your Machine/OS supports 64 Bit): I think it easiest to use 32 Bit for everything.

  2. Click the Windows 32 Bit Operating System for your machine, under the heading Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers (the fourth selection from the top).

    You will see the following page (don't worry about the name of the institution to the right of the big downward pointing arrow).

  3. Click the big downward pointing arrow underneath the Download eclipse-cpp-luna-R-win32.zip from: The site named here, in purple to the right of the arrow: [United States] Columbian University (http) is the random one chosen by the download page this time; yours may differ.

    This file should start downloading in your standard download folder. This file is about 200 Mb so it might take a while to download fully if you are on a slow internet connection (it took me about 5 minutes over a cable modem). Don't worry about the exact time as long as the download continues to make steady progress. In Chrome progress is shown on the bottom-left of the window, via the icon

    The file should appear as

    Terminate the window browsing the Eclipse download.

  4. Move this file to a more permanent location, so that you can install Eclipse (and reinstall it later, if necessary).

  5. Start the Installing instructions directly below.

Installing Eclipse

  1. Unzip eclipse-cpp-luna-R-win32.zip from:, the file that you just downloaded and moved.
    On my machine (running Windows 7), I can

    If you do not have IZArc or an equivalent unzipping program, here is the web site to download a free copy of IZarc.

    Unzipping this file creates a folder named eclipseC:\Program Files\ directory.

  2. Create a shortcut on your desktop to the eclipse.exe file in this eclipse folder:
    On most Windows machines, you can

    Now you are ready to perform a one-time only setup of Eclipse on your machine.

  3. Double-click the shortcut to Eclipse that you just created above.

    The following splash screen will appear

    and then a Workspace Launcher pop-up window will appear.

    In the Workspace text box, your login name should appear between C:\Users\ and \workspace, instead of Administrator.

    Leave unchecked the Use this as the default and do not ask again box. Although you will use this same workspace for the entire quarter (checking projects in and out of it), it is best to see this Workspace Launcher pop-up window each time you start Eclipse, to remind you where your workspace is located.

  4. Click OK.

    Progress bars will appear at the bottom of the spash screen as Eclipse loads.

    Eventually the Eclipse workbench will appear with a Welcome tab covering it.

  5. Terminate (click X on) the Welcome tab.

    You will not see the Welcome tab when you start Eclipse after this first time. You should now see the following Eclipse workbench.

    Notice the C/C++ words/icon appear on the top left (in the Window title-bar) and below the upper right-hand corner (beneath the tool-bar).

  6. To simplify the edit/build-recompile/run loop that we will discuss below, perform the following operation: after completing it, clicking Build or Run will automatically save the contents of any edited file before the program is rebuilt and run. Once you have set up these preference in a workspace on your home machine, you will never have to peform this step again.
Eclipse is now installed for C++. Start the Testing instructions directly below.

Testing Eclipse, C++, and Libraries

  1. Download the ics46-templates.zip file and unzip it.

  2. Select File | Imports as shown below.

  3. Disclose General and select Existing Projects into Workspace as shown below.

  4. Click Next>
    Browse to the ics46-templates folder you downloaded and unzipped in above.
    Click the "Copy projects into workspace" checkbox, as shown below.

  5. Click Finish. The Project Explorer window should be updated to appear as shown below.

    You can explore the courselib and googletestlib projects by disclosing/eliding their folders and subfolders. The software in these projects have already been built, so you do not need to build them here.

    The project folder should remain unchanged. Below (and in the future) you will copy/paste this project folder to create a new project folder in which to put your source files for the new project.

  6. Right-click the project icon in the Project Explorer tab and select Copy as shown below (or click project icon and use the Ctrl+c shortcut for Copy) as shown below.

  7. Right-click the project icon in the Project Explorer tab and select Paste as shown below (or use the Ctrl+v shortcut for Paste) as shown below.

  8. Rename it to be test_set as shown below

    and click OK.

  9. Disclose the test_set icon in the Project Explorer tab: it shows an src folder which should appear empty, as shown below

  10. Download and unzip test_set.zip.
    Copy/Paste all the files in its src folder into the src folder shown in the newly created and disclosed test_set project folder.
    Copy any data files (there is one: loadset.txt) into the newly created test_set project folder.
    Disclose the src folder, which should appear as shown below

  11. Double-click the driver.cpp file in the src folder.
    In the Editor tab for the driver.cpp file select all the lines (Ctrl+a) and then uncomment them (Ctrl+/).

    The Editor tab for the driver.cpp file should show the following.

    Notice the * prefixing the driver.cpp file name: this indicates the file has been modified but not saved. You can right-click in the file and select Save, but Eclipse will do that automatically when you build a project (if you correctly followed the instructions for installing it).

  12. Either click the test_set icon in the Project Explorer tab and then click the Hammer icon ; or right-click the test_set icon in the Project Explorer tab and select Build Project. The Console window should show the following.

  13. Either right-click the test_set icon in the Project Explorer or right-click in the driver.cpp Editor tab.
    Then select Run As and 1 Local C/C++ Application.

    The Console window should show the following.

    You can use this driver interactively to test various operations on the Set data type that is implemented by an array (from courselib). When you are done testing, the q command quits/terminates this code.

  14. Comment out all the code in the Editor tab for the driver.cpp file (Ctrl+a followed by Ctrl+/).
    Double-click the test_set.cpp file in the Project Explorer tab.
    Uncomment all the code in the Editor tab for the googletest.cpp file (Ctrl+a followed by Ctrl+/).
    Compile-Build and Run this code: because we are rerunning a project that has already been compiled-built and run, we can recompile-rebuild and rerun by just clicking the Run icon (). Knowing this shortcut is useful.

    Ignore the two warning message: this code uses a for-loop counter that is not used inside the loop. When prompted, type 1000 and enter, enter, and 1000 and enter (as shown in green below).

    The Console window should show the following.

Eclipse and C++ are now working correctly with the courselib and googletestlib

For subsequent quizzes/programs, you can All these steps were shown above. You should never have to reimport the courselib or googletestlib, although I might instruct you to change some the the files in the courselib/src folder and rebuild the library: Read Updating the Course Library Instructions.