Usefull Eclipse plugins: Part 1

You regular readers out there may have noticed I just started a series I called Usefull Firefox plugins. Well, today I'm starting another series I'm calling Usefull Eclipse plugins. Unsurprisingly, I will cover Eclipse plugins I find usefull in my day to day work.

The first plugin to hit the fan is the Simian UI. You can find it at http://www.integility.com/simian_ui. I'm actually starting at an odd end of my plugin list here. I don't find myself using Simian UI all the time, but when I need it it's certainly handy.

So far in my career, I have been so fortunate to work on several legacy code bases. Legacy code bases provide a special kind of challenge as they often lack unit tests and documentation, and is littered with duplicated code, all of which make the code hard to work with. Simian UI help with the latter problem; identifying duplicated code. It integrates nicely with Eclipse and highlights areas of code that have been duplicated elsewhere. An invaluable tool for getting an overview and for refactoring.

Thats all for now. Stay tuned for more Usefull Eclipse plugins. Part 2 will cover a plugin for synchronizing folders, and why on earth you would need such functionality.