Eclipse is an IDE unlike any other. It is rare to find a product that enjoys fervent support from both major corporations and the open-source community. Eclipse, however, is one such product. Eclipse came about from IBM’s development and its subsequent rallying of support from industry businesses. Its final handoff of Eclipse to a non-profit corporation has only enhanced Eclipse’s potential. From the very first release, this free product was loaded with features that often cost thousands of dollars in other IDEs. The core philosophy of Eclipse is to be a tool to create other tools. It is often said that the Eclipse Platform is the ultimate tool to make tools. Its end-user license and architecture support this philosophy.
Taking advantage of this architecture is the PHPEclipse plug-in. Designed from the ground up to fulfill the needs of a PHP web developer, the combination of PHPEclipse and the Eclipse Platform gives everyone everything they would need to create web applications in a professional manner.