I am a Java developer and use Eclipse most every day. However, as you can see on this blog, I do a fair amount of Drupal work and have dabbled in writing Drupal modules.
A few releases of Eclipse ago, I spent quite a bit of time installing the eclipse PDT project on top of my eclipse for Java installation. I remember it taking quite a bit of time to sort things out.
The other day I sat down to write a Java program to solve a Triazzle puzzle (ask me if you want it) and noticed that the version of eclipse installed on my personal machine was rather dated. So, I downloaded and installed the lasted version of the Helios release.
I figured I might as well install the PDT on top of it and looked thru my notes on how I did it before. Well, it turns out that this is a very well supported operation now.
For the simple directions, see the PDT page on the eclipse wiki:
http://wiki.eclipse.org/PDT/Installation#From_Update_Site
UPDATE: ShellEd version 2.0 has a new installation procedure:
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/shelled/wiki/Documentation/InstallGuide
I just tried this and it worked fine against Eclipse Helios
I've been having getting my normal editor working (a Winders editor that I run under wine) and thought I'd give eclipse a shot.
I did some searching and ended up installing the ShellEd plugin. It offers source coloring and context sensitive help popups. It doesn't create a custom perspective or a project type; but that's fine. I'd be happer with the solution if eclipse offered text wrapping (!). Despite that, the system seems to work fairly well.