To install Eclipse, go to the Eclipse home page and follow the directions. I haven't used Eclipse in a while, so I can't tell you all the details of the installation process and the user interface. Eclipse has some excellent tutorials built right in that will do a much better job than I could to explain how to use it. If you need advice about the current version, ask on the general Moodle forum and you'll probably find another 124 student who would happy to help you out.

I'm not in the habit of using Eclipse just because I use Java mostly for teaching and no longer get into the size of project for which the features of Eclipse would be useful. Also, it's hard to display Eclipse in a way that works for classroom projection. If you want to move into larger projects, Eclipse is a a great tool. But you don't really need it for CISC 124.

There's a bit of a learning curve with Eclipse; expect to spend an hour or two setting things up and learning how to use Eclipse. Many Queen's students are enthusiastic about Eclipse once they get the hang of it and find that the time was well spent.

Important Warnings About Using Eclipse For CISC 124 Assignments:

1. For your assignments, you must hand in only the .java files that are needed for running your program. Every year we get students who want to hand in a "zip" of their entire Eclipse directories, which means that it's almost impossible for us to figure out how to compile and run your program unless we have the exactly same version of Eclipse that you're using. It also wastes a lot of server space. The TAs and I have limited time and won't spend time figuring out how to test a program that's handed in this way. Every year I warn people about this and every year students are upset if they lose marks for handing in large Eclipse directories. You have been warned!
2. Eclipse may offer you the chance to use non-standard packages. The only library packages you may use are the ones whose names begin with "java" or "javax".