In the previous chapters of this book, we have seen how to use Eclipse in various ways, such as developing code for Java, managing projects with Git, and developing web applications. In this chapter, we'll switch the focus and learn how we can use Eclipse to develop code for Eclipse. Since Eclipse is developed in Java, good knowledge of the language is a requisite for this chapter.
One of the Eclipse's features that allowed it to become one of the most popular IDEs around is its pluggable architecture. It contains a runtime platform, which provides the necessary infrastructure for the IDE to run, such as the primary UI elements, a registry of the loaded plugins, a logging infrastructure, among others, and basically everything else is plugins. You can check that by taking a look at the Eclipse's folder in your machine. Inside the plugins folder there's a number of JAR files and folders, each one relating to a plugin. Plugins can be packed either in a simple...