WeedCast 4.x
-Code Documentation, 8 July 2005-
About Eclipse (Installing):
You can learn about Eclipse from their home page. It allows you to create code at a faster rate and of a higher quality. You can download the latest version from their webpage. Weedcast is written in Java, so you will need to download a Java Developer's Kit from somewhere on Sun's web page. You want the J2SE (Standard Edition), JDK. Any real computer already has the JRE (Java runtime environment), which is used to run java code. You need more stuff to develop java code. Don't bother with any of that netbeans stuff.

Configuration:
Eclipse has a bazillion settings. You can basically configure it however you want. But in order to save time, you should get ahold of Andy's Eclipse prefs and Import them. This way, you can have Eclipse auto-format your code, and it will fall in line with the Java style Andy likes.
Download Andy's Eclipse Prefs.

You can adjust your settings to your liking once you get familiar with your new environment.

Perspectives:
Eclipse has several perspectives. One is "Java", used for developing applications in Java (yay). By default, this will give you a console screen (for program output), a package explorer (like windows explorer, it displays the files in the project), an outline, and your code. There's also a debug perspective that has tools for debugging a running program. In all likelyhood, you'll want to be in Java mode most of the time. Things might look strange if you are in a file/resource browser.

Packages:
Packages are a java construct used for keeping your files organized. However, be wary- if you aren't familiar with eclipse, it's easy to confuse normal folders and packages. The difference lies in the first (non-commented) line of each java file. 
package src;
This line says that this file is in the src package. The enclosing src "folder" becomes a package with a little brown package icon. If something doesn't quite work out here, right click on your project name and choose properties. In the project properties page, Take a look at Java Build Path, then the Source tab. Click on Add Folder and check the mark on your project. What you have just (hopefully) done is set everything in your project folder to be on the build path. The idea behind this is that you can only have eclipse try to compile and run things in certain folders. I think it's lame, but I guess somebody must like it. When you've done it correctly, you should see: Included: (All).