As part of my work on fisheye views of source code, which was presented at CHI 2009, I have made a Fisheye Java editor plug-in for Eclipse. The plug-in allows users to switch on a context view in the Java editor or to call up a transient context view on demand.
The plug-in is available for installation in Eclipse 3.4 and requires Java 1.5 or later. The feature containing the plug-in is obtained from the update site http://mikkelrj.dk/v11n/update. The plug-in has recently been updated to work in version 3.4, but I hope to get the plug-in working again with previous versions of Eclipse. At some time, I may release the source code so that developers can help improve it or extend it for other uses. However, I have no concrete plans currently to do so.
Installation
- In Eclipse, click on Help > Software Update > Find and Install…
- Choose the Search for new features to install option, and click Next.
- Click New Remote Site.
- Enter the following:
- Name: Fisheye Java Editor update site
- URL: http://mikkelrj.dk/v11n/update
and click OK.
- “Fisheye Java Editor update site” should appear under Sites to include in search.
Click the checkbox next to it to select it, and click Finish. - You should see Fisheye Java Editor Feature under Select features to install.
(You may have to click on one or two triangles to make it visible in the tree.)
Select the checkbox next to it and click next. - Select the I accept option to accept the license and click Next.
- Make sure the location is correct where you’re installing it. The default should be fine. Click Finish.
- The plugin is not digitally signed. Go ahead and install it anyway.
- Click Yes to make Eclipse restart itself.
The feature contains a plug-in with online help. After installation, you may want to read the Fisheye Java Editor User Guide. The tutorial gives an overview of the Fisheye Java Editor and a walk-through on how to use it.