For putting together my eBooks, I use a tool that I’ve been using for years, professionally. It’s called “Eclipse,” and for Java developers (and others) it’s a very good IDE (Integrated Development Environment). Now, blowing out the acronym may not help you if you are of a less technical nature, but what it really means that Eclipse is a tool that allows programmers to create and test their code in one place – quite convenient! Now, as eBooks are mostly made up of two types of documents (XML and HTML), then Eclipse is a very good tool to use…
When it works! Getting an upgrade to Java on your PC can make it unstable, and tonight, sadly, when I cranked it up, that’s what I saw. It actually wouldn’t start; it just threw up a great big error message that one had to parse through a good long while to find it was complaining about the specific version of Java it wanted. Like every other type of software that’s been around for awhile, the Java programming language has versions. We’re now on Java 1.8, and I was using Eclipse Kepler (or rather version Kepler – love how they name Eclipse releases), and those two don’t work well together.
So, what’s required to fix it? Well, first thing, is to go to Eclipse.org and download the latest version (now called Eclipse Luna! Wonder if “My Little Pony” had anything to do with that). Now, take that ZIP file and drop it in a directory like C:\eclipse. Unzip it there, and you’ll see eclipse.exe. That’s the program. However, you’re not half done. Next, you’ll need to go to Oracle.com and download the latest JDK (Java Developers Kit). That installs fairly nicely, but there are a couple of manual steps you need to do, in addition.
First, right click “My Computer” (presuming you’re on windows), Advanced System Settings, and Environment Variables. There, you’ll need to add JAVA_HOME with the value of the directory location where you installed Java, and then add that directory (plus /bin) to your PATH variable. You’ll know you’ve got it right when you can open a command window (type cmd in the search programs and files after you click the Windows button, well, at least in Windows 7) and type javac -version and get some kind of response that matches the Java version you downloaded.
But wait! There’s more! Now that Eclipse will fire up, there is still a little step you have to do so your HTML and XML files with special characters (like curly quotes, etc.) don’t end up looking like Greek. Start up Eclipse, go to Help, then to Eclipse Marketplace, and search for “WebSphere.” That’s IBM’s Java enterprise run-time environment. You’re looking for the WebSphere tools for Eclipse that match your Java version. Accept the license agreement and download away. Then, you’re back in fat city! Eclipse is running; your files look lovely, and you are ready to take all of that freshly edited content and dump it into the eBook format.
And that’s where I am with Purebred right now – back to an Eclipse that is working and ready for me to start…
Take care and see you in the future!
James Todd Lewis Author of The Thurian Saga, including The Rescue, The Aftermath, The Ascent, The Summit, and Purebred! Follow me on Twitter! @hmseagle Visit my Amazon author page! amazon.com/author/jamestoddlewis
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