What's New in 2.1

[This section should make interesting reading for an end user of Eclipse 2.0 who has just switched to 2.1 (or is contemplating switching). It should inform them the most interesting and most significant visible changes that came along with 2.1. The section should be complete, in that no interesting, significant, visible change should go unmentioned. It differs in tone from the Tips and Tricks section in that it only covers things that are new for 2.1, and that it only deals with things that users would feel like was a significant improvement. Each item should stand by itself, so that the items can be easily rearranged and subsetted. Screen snaps should be GIFs and must be no wider than 466 pixels.]

[This section is still preliminary. The material here is lifted from the M2 through M5 "New and Noteworthy" bulletins.]

[Formatting changes: add horizontal line between each item; change font and size throughout.]


Reminders in your code The Java compiler will now create visible tasks whenever it finds a comment in a Java source file tagged as "TODO". Use the Java / Task Tags preference page to configure other task tags.

Quick Assists [TBD]
Quick fixes Position the cursor in an identifier and press Ctrl+1 (Edit > Quick Fix) in the Java editor to invoke the quick fix mechanism even when there are no errors.
  • Linked rename: Available on all identifiers.


  • Switches into the editor linked mode editing (like templates), where changing the identifier changes all occurrences of that name within the source file.

  • Move catch block to throws declaration: Available on the catch statement.
  • Assign expression statements to a local variable or field: Available on all expression statements. e.g.: 
  •    vector.iterator();
    will be transformed to
       Iterator iterator= vector.iterator();
    Quick assist will guess a variable name for you.
More flexible Java source and output paths
The Java build path setup offers improved flexibility:
  • Exclusion filters let you exclude certain source files within a source folder from being compiled.
  • Source folders can now be nested, provided you use an exclusion filter on the parent to exclude the files of the other.
  • The location of generated class files can be set differently for each source folder.