Mac OS X: Installing Eclipse

Download the latest version of Eclipse from http://www.eclipse.org.
In July, 2014, we chose Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers, which is 249.8Mb. The Eclipse for RCP and RAP Developers version includes the plug-in development environment (PDE), which is needed by the backtrack facility, which is an optional part of Ptolemy II that allows models to restore their old state. If the version of Eclipse that you install does not have the PDE, then there will be build errors, which can be fixed by excluding ptolemy/backtrack/ from the build.

Eclipse is available as both 32-bit and 64-bit binaries. Deciding which one to download can be complex.

Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion), Mac OS 10.8 (Mountain Lion), Mac OS 10.9 (Mavericks)
Use the 64-bit Eclipse (Lion does not include a 32-bit JVM)
Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard)
Use the 64-bit Eclipse (Snow Leopard might have a 32-bit JVM, see 32-bit or 64-bit)
Mac OS X 10.5
Use the 32-bit Eclipse, see 32-bit or 64-bit

Once you have determined whether to use a 32-bit version of Eclipse or a 64-bit version, perform these steps:

  1. Download the Eclipse file, double click on it, which will expand tar file and create eclipse/.
  2. Move eclipse/ into /Applications, which will create /Applications/eclipse/Eclipse.app
  3. Click on the Eclipse icon, which will start up Eclipse.
  4. Go to Setting the Eclipse Preferences.