Equo IDE: IDE as a build artifact

EquoIDE is:

• a build plugin for Gradle and Maven
• downloads, configures, and launches an instance of the Eclipse IDE
• ensures that all of your devs have a zero-effort and perfectly repeatable IDE setup process
• makes it easy to develop, dogfood, and distribute new IDE plugins

There are slides and a recorded presentation available here.

Demo

The best way to get acquainted with this project is to clone our ChatGPT plugin and launch the dogfooding IDE like so:

user@machine % git clone https://github.com/equodev/equo-ide-chatgpt
user@machine % cd equo-chat-gpt
user@machine equo-ide % ./gradlew equoIde --clean

This will download and launch an IDE that shows the code for our ChatGPT plugin. Make changes to the code, restart the IDE with gradlew equoIde, and you'll see your change instantly.

Quickstart

Use it like this in Gradle with gradlew equoIde (more info)

plugins {
  id 'dev.equo.ide' version '{{ latest version at top of page }}'
}
equoIde { // launch with gradlew equoIde
  jdt()
  gradleBuildship().autoImport('.')
  tabnine() // same idea as GitHub Copilot, but with free and self-hosted versions available
  chatGPT() // use GPT3 & 4 (no waitlist!) to refactor, write tests, and generate documentation 
}

or like this in Maven with mvn equo-ide:launch (more info)

<plugin><!-- add this to pom.xml/<project><build><plugins> -->
  <groupId>dev.equo.ide</groupId>
  <artifactId>equo-ide-maven-plugin</artifactId>
  <version>{{ latest version at top of page }}</version>
  <configuration>
    <jdt/>
    <m2e><autoImport>${project.basedir}</autoImport></m2e>
    <tabnine/> <!-- same idea as GitHub Copilot, but with free and self-hosted versions available -->
    <chatGPT/> <!-- use GPT3 & 4 (no waitlist!) to refactor, write tests, and generate documentation -->
  </configuration>
</plugin>

You can see all the plugins we support in CATALOG.md, and we also support any arbitrary maven-based or p2-based plugins. See P2_MULTITOOL.md for info on browsing and working with p2 repositories.

How it works

Much of the complexity of downloading, running, and modifying the Eclipse IDE is caused by OSGi and p2. Equo IDE replaces p2 and OSGi with a simple shim called Solstice. This makes it easier and faster to build, debug, and run Eclipse-based applications.