Important Eclipse features are explained , in plain language. First time I see text where someone said in plain English what is JAR, Plug In and so on further.

YOU HAVE TO KNOW JAVA BEFORE READING THIS (it's something you know already, I guess).

These days anyone who writes a book on a software tool has to offer something over the standard online documentation.

Eclipse is a behemoth so is a potentially good candidate. This book may have filled a need when wrritten, but the tools and the documentation have moved on since. It provides decent basic coverage and is easy to read, but needs to be updated. the book is not totally useless yet, but it's reaching its end of life.

There are now googleable online tutorials that are better than this book now.

I prefer Eclipse: Building Commercial-Quality Plug-ins (2nd Edition) (The Eclipse Series), as it's more current (2006 as opposed to 2004) and more comprehensive.

This book provided lots of useful tips and information to the inner workings of the Eclispe IDE. Elcipse for Dummies was well compiled and very informative, it also gives the reader much more of an understanding of the very popular Eclispe IDE and how to best utilise it's features.

First, I agree with what the other reviewers have stated. However, my method for selecting the book is different. I downloaded Eclipse, installed it, and started using it just by "look and feel". I felt a bit like I was driving a car on a one-way street in the wrong direction. Still, I stayed with it until I felt I could identify a number of things I wanted to do, but really couldn't immediately figure out. I then shopped around looking for a book that answered my questions. (I frequently shop the local bookstores and then buy from Amazon.) Eclipse for Dummies did that for me. Just by leafing through the Index and the Table of Contents I answered most of my questions. That's when I decided to get the book.

While I haven't finished the book, so far it is well-organized and anticipates many of the questions a beginning Eclipse user will want answered. Keeping in mind the audience the Dummy series addresses, this is a great book for someone who wants to get started using Eclipse.

I bought this book because it's purpose is to teach the use of Eclipse for the sake of using Eclipse. That is as opposed to using Eclipse to enhance Eclipse, ie, writing plugins. It did an admirable job of achieving that purpose. The writing style is relaxed and intended to be conversational.

Eclipse for Dummies is about 335 pages in length. The book has four major sections, each section containing one or more chapters for a grand total of 18 chapters. Section 1 is the basic introduction to Eclipse and covers installing and understanding the conceptual design of Eclipse. There is a good discussion of perspectives, views, and the difference of the two. Java programming examples are presented at each step and I would stronly encourage the reader to replicate the examples themselves. If you skip the implementing the examples, your going to get a lot less from the book. This goes for entirety of the book. Section 2 comprising chapters 6-12, goes into greater depth in discussing the features of the Eclipse programming environment. This is where the tricks of the trade are focused on, for example, using the Java editor, code assist, documentation,and formatting helps. Refactoring is heavily discussed as it probably should be. Section 3 comprising chapters 13-16 discusses working with projects, running the code, and debugging. Now personally, I would have thought that should have been up front, however, given the number of programming examples laced throughout the earlier chapters the reader is kind of already given a good introduction to creating and maintaining multiple source files and packages within a project. Section 4 is just a little add-on kind of thing which discusses the ten most FAQs and suggestions for what plugins you might want to add.

I gave the book four stars, but really I would have given it a 3.75. I looked around a lot for Eclipse tutorial books, but found that they moved too fast, assummed too much on the part of the reader, and apparently assumed the reader wanted to join the Eclipse team. Eclipse for Dummies was the best book I have found so far for the typical programmer who wants to use Eclipse for the sake of creating applications.

Another one of the newer books out on Eclipse is Eclipse For Dummies by Barry Burd (Wiley). I like the book for what it is, but there are some caveats that may affect your experience...

Chapter List:
Part 1 - The Eclipse Landscape: Reader, Meet Eclipse, Eclipse, Meet The Reader; Installing Eclipse; Using the Eclipse Workbench; Changing Your Perspective; Some Useful Perspectives and Views
Part 2 - Using the Eclipse Environment: Using the Java Editor; Getting Eclipse to Write Your Code; Straight from the Source's Mouse; More Eclipse "Sourcery"; Refactoring: A Burd's Eye View; Refactor This!; Looking for Things in All the Right Places
Part 3 - Doing More With Eclipse: Working with Projects; Running Code; Getting Help; Squashing Bugs
Part 4 - The Part of Tens: The Frequently Asked Questions (And Their Answers); Ten Great Plug-ins for Eclipse
Index

First off, what I liked... I'm unapologetic in my liking of Dummies titles. They mesh well with my learning style (light and humorous), and I think they do a great job in giving one a good understanding of a particular subject. If you had never read anything about Eclipse, this book would be a good way to expose you to the functionality of the software. I also like how Burd covers the features of the software, like refactoring and such. Once again, when you get done with the book, you should understand how the software can help you when you're coding your programs. Finally, it's been published since Eclipse 3 was released, so it's dealing with the latest and greatest.

So what are the caveats? The book deals mostly with the Eclipse as an IDE, but not so much with actual coding with it. There are other books out there that largely cover the same material as this book does, but they have more of an emphasis on actual coding examples. Having the practical coding examples can help cement some of the learning you'll need going forward.

It's not that this book is bad or that it's done a bad job. It's just that depending on what you're looking for, this may or may not be your best choice...