I’ve been a die-hard vi programmer for years, and become quite proficient at using the editor. But a couple of my co-workers have continued touting the merits of Eclipse, until I gave in and gave it a try. At first I only used it for a couple hours at a time, with weeks in between. But my usage has continually increased, until now I’m starting to prefer it for some tasks. Eclipse has about a gazillion keyboard shortcuts; here are the ones I find most useful.

Code Manipulation

ctrl + /

Toggle comment. Comments or uncomments the selected lines.

ctrl + space

Code Assist. Presents a list of suggested completions for the current word.

alt + /

Content Assist. Completes the current word using Eclipse’s best guess based on the context. alt + / again cycles through the suggestions.

ctrl + 1

Quick fix. Hit this while your cursor is over a squiggly red line and Eclipse will present you with a list of options for correcting the error. Never write another import statement!

ctrl + shift + o

Organize imports. Add missing imports, remove unused imports, and alphabetize the entire list.

Code Navigation

ctrl + j

Incremental find. It’s like find as you type in Firefox. Use ctrl + j and ctrl + shift + j or just the arrow keys to cycle results (not F3). Hit esc to exit incremental find mode.

ctrl + l

Go to specific line. Know what line you need need? This is faster than scrolling.

ctrl + o

Quick Outline. Allows quick navigation to any method within the current file. ctrl + o again shows inherited members.

ctrl + t

Quick Type Hierarchy. Allows quick navigation to all sub- and super-classes.

ctrl + shift + r

Open resource. Just start typing and Eclipse will present you with a list of matching resources.

ctrl + shift + t

This one actually isn’t working for me, but they tell me it’s pretty cool.

Editor

ctrl + e

Browse editor windows. Pulls up a list of all open editors for easy navigation.

ctrl + m

Maximize current window.

ctrl + shift + F4

Close all open editor windows. Great for cleaning up your workspace quickly so you can get a fresh start.

Refactoring

alt + shift + r

Rename local variable. Pick a new name and Eclipse will rename all instance of this variable.

Other non-keyboard-shortcut tips for getting started with Eclipse are here.

Plugins
Eclipse has plugins, too! Some that I use:

Subclipse

Subversion integration

FindBugs

“[U]ses static analysis to look for bugs in Java code”

Checkstyle

Checkstyle integration; “Checkstyle is a development tool to help programmers write Java code that adheres to a coding standard”