Now that we've covered the basic features of the Eclipse IDE, and created a simple Hello World COBOL application, it is time for you to create the equivalent PL/I application:
By default, when you start Eclipse, it displays the Eclipse Launcher dialog box prompting you to specify a path for the Eclipse workspace. Specify a path and click Launch.
If this is the first time you start Eclipse, you now see the Eclipse Welcome page. See The Eclipse Welcome Page in this Introduction.
Click Open PL/I Perspective as this perspective is the most suitable one for PL/I development.
By default, the project will be created in the workspace that you selected when you started the Eclipse session.
You need to create a program in your project to hold the PL/I source code:
The New PL/I Source File wizard is displayed.
This adds a template PL/I file to your project and opens it in the editor.
HelloWorld: proc options (main); put skip list("Hello PL/I World!"); end HelloWorld;
By default, Eclipse builds your project automatically. If you haven't configured Eclipse to do this, you can build a project at any time by clicking Project > Build Project.
The progress of the project build is displayed in the Console view.
When your project has been built, a folder called New_Configuration.bin is created in your project. Expand the folder in the PL/I Explorer view to see the executable and some .o files.
You can now run the application.
Applications you create in Eclipse need a launch configuration to execute. You are going to create a run configuration for the Hello PL/I world application as follows:
A default PL/I Launch Configuration is created in the wizard showing HelloPLIWorld as the project to run and New_Configuration.bin/HelloPLIWorld as the main program to run.
This opens a console window with Hello PL/I World! printed in it.
Preserve this project because you are going to use it again for a different demonstration included in this Introduction.
Continue with the next tutorial, Debugging the Hello PL/I World application, which demonstrates how to debug applications in Eclipse.