Change Eclipse UI font size and type

Unfortunately the chang of the font size is not yet possible from within Eclipse itself (for some of UI components like Menu and Navigator for example), at least for Eclipse version 3.2.0.
The UI font size can only be changed via the X resource mechanism. If you are using a gtk or gtk2 build, then the font size should automatically adapt to the settings of your theme or your personal preferences.

Use xfontsel to select a font. For example:

-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1

Modify a config file: ~/.Xdefaults

Eclipse*fontList:-misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-10-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1

Use the following command to apply the font:

xrdb ~/.Xdefaults

Eclipse CDT spell check

It seems that very soon we, users of Eclips CDT, will finally get spell check enabled for C++ source. See Eclipse bug 190512.

Useful Eclipse plug-ins for C++ Developers

With this post I would like to share my preferences of plug-ins for Eclipse.
Most of the time I do a C++ development (mostly under Linux). Since I came from Windows world and I was using the best development environment ever made - MS Visual Studio :) I wanted to find something similar in the Linux world. I tried emacs, KDevelop and Eclipse. I wont compare all of them, probably I will do that some time later, I will just conclude that I choose Eclipse and CDT.
Well, currently I am suing the following useful plug-ins:

• Subclipse - a very nice SVN plug-in,
• Autotools - a GNU Autotools plug-in from Fedora,
• Qt Eclipse Integration - the name is self explaining :),
• XMLBuddy - an XML helper.

Also I don't use the original code formating mechanism of Eclipse CDT, rather I use AStyle as an external tool, which is much more powerful. Here I have an instraction for you how to use AStyle in Eclipse:

• Select the dropdown button for "External Tools", then click on "Externals Tools..."
• Select "Program" in the Configurations window then click the New button
• For the "Name" call it "AStyle", for the "Location" put the full path and filename for AStyle (i.e. /usr/bin/astyle)
• For "Arguments", put the AStyle arguments to get the code formatted to your style. I like ANSI style and 3 spaces for indentation, hence, the arguments would be "--style=ansi -s3" (no quotes) or use --options=####
• Now put your cursor at the end of the "Arguments" and click the "Variables" button and then select the resource_loc" and click OK
• Your arguments should look like "--style=ansi -s3 ${resource_loc}" (no quotes)
• Now click the "Refresh" tab, and click the check-box "Refresh resources upon completion" and then click the "The Selected Resource" radio button.
• Click the "Apply" button then the "Close" button.