WoW:Lua editors/Eclipse (IDE)

Eclipse is a free software development IDE written in the Java language. For many, it is becoming the defacto standard, especially for Java and J2ee development. It can also be expanded to provide robust editing for other languages, like Lua, via plugins.

Why Eclipse?

With the development of the right plugins Eclipse could become a powerful editing tool for the AddOn developer. Currently there is a Lua Plugin that allows for some Lua color-coding, but doesn't take into account any of the WoW objects/functions. A customized Eclipse editing plugin would need to be authored to accomplish this. The Lua plugin is a great starting point for this.

Ambitious AddOn makers who enjoy using Eclipse could even provide templates for creating .toc files, .xml files, etc.

Where can I get it?

Eclipse can be downloaded here: http://www.eclipse.org.

A Java JDK will be required to operate Eclipse. 1.4.2: http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.2/download.html

The Lua Plugin is available here: http://www.eclipse-plugins.info/eclipse/plugin_details.jsp?id=466

Lunar Eclipse

Lunar Eclipse is a more actively developed lua plugin. The one above hasn't been updated for a while and still doesn't show a list of your functions in the outline. Lunar Eclipse does and has other additional features as well.

Lunar Eclipse requires Eclipse 3.3 which is still in the release candidate phase. Get the stable 3.3 eclipse release here:

http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/downloads/

The Lunar Eclipse website is here: http://lunareclipse.sourceforge.net/

The URL for Eclipse's Find and Install feature is: http://lunareclipse.mainiero.de/update

LunarEclipse requires the Dynamic Languages Toolkit - Core Frameworks (DLTK), which can be found under Europa Discovery Site->Enabling Features under Find and Install.