Eclipse 2022-09 update brings new improvements

The latest version of the Eclipse IDE is here. The Eclipse Foundation released version 2022-09 on September 14, 2022, along with several new updates for other community-owned projects under the Simultaneous Release plan.

The Eclipse IDE is one of the leading open source environments for Java developers. This release adds several new features, interface updates, and improvements for Maven and Java.

What’s new and improved?

Some highlights from the 2022-09 release notes include:

• Word wrap is now enabled by default under General > Editors > Text Editors
• When reporting missing project encoding, you can now set the severity of the issue (Options are “Warning”, “Ignore”, “Info”, and “Error”)
• Support for JUnit 5 in the Test Suite Wizard has been added
• New APIs for setting the highlight bar’s thickness and custom text in MessageBox buttons.
• Updated deault UI for forms
• ANSI escape code support in Console

For even more information, be sure to watch Holger Voormann’s YouTube video Eclipse 2022-09 Java IDE Improvements and learn about what’s new with Maven updates and general improvements.

Support for Java 19 is not in this release yet. Eclipse 2022-09 ships with Java 17, the current long-term support (LTS) release. However, Java devs should mark their calendars, because JDK 19 arrives on September 20, 2022.

Over 20 years of Eclipse

Since its initial release in 2001, the Eclipse IDE has remained one of the most commonly used open source IDEs for Java programmers. It was dethroned from its top spot in 2016 by IntelliJ IDEA, and now sits comfortably as the second most popular IDE for JVM developers.

One of the reasons for its widespread adoption is its use of plug-ins and extensibility. Plug-ins and extensions provide further functionality for the IDE. Some of the most popular plugins add functionalities such as Spring tooling, a Python IDE, the ability to run TestIDE tests, dark mode customization, and a Yaml editor.

The variety of third-party plug-ins is vast and continues to grow with community contributions from around the world.

Getting the newest version

Naturally, The Eclipse Foundation is committed to providing open source software, so the IDE and all updates continue to be free for all. Download the new version of the open source IDE for Windows, Linux, and macOS devices via the Eclipse Installer.

The Eclipse Installer was recently upgraded to be easier and more straightforward than ever, forgoing a typical .zip file in favor of a self-extracting download. You may choose which packages you want to install in the GUI.

According to the Simultaneous Release schedule, the next Eclipse IDE update is due out in December, 2022.