Yes, I meant to remove the .classpath and .project files.

These can be generated by `mvn eclipse:eclipse`, or they can be created by using the m2eclipse[1] plugin to import the top level directory as an existing maven project.

m2eclipse is nicer to work with than `mvn eclipse:eclipse` because the classpath is managed automatically from the pom.xml, much like the PDE manages the classpath automatically from the MANIFEST.MF.  But if its not installed then the .classpath it creates is completely useless as the IDE won't know how to use the Maven container entry.

By not having the .classpath or .project file present we force the developer to select their tool of choice to create these, in which case we can then assume that the tool has created files which will work on the developer's IDE.  For non-Eclipse developers (e.g. Netbeans or IntelliJ fans) there exists similar support to configure the project automatically from the pom.xml and its classpath.  Creating Eclipse .classpath files in our repository doesn't help them in any way.

[1] http://m2eclipse.sonatype.org/