I've finally finished my work on the eclipse plugin that allows you to use the manged build feature for eclipse. All it actually is, is an xml file that you stick in the plugins directory of your eclipse installation. Here are the instructions:
1. First download the basic eclipse installation.
(At this point I am using Eclipse SDK 3.02) You can get it here.
Eclipse Foundation website Just unzip the file to wherever you want it to go.
2. Next install mingw (if you're on windows) If linux install, some sort of gcc collection that includes GNU make. If you're on a Mac, sorry I don't know what to do. Anyway, you can MinGW from
this site. Click on File List and then click on the current release of MinGW.
(As of the time I'm writing this the current release is MinGW-3.1.0-1.exe) Make sure that your path has C:\minGW\bin by rightclicking on My Computer, properties, advanced, envrionment variables, system variables, path.
3. Start up eclipse, you'll probably get a welcome screen and everything. Go to the Help menu select Software Updates and then Find and Install, Select Search for new features to install and click Next. Click New Remote Site to add an update site with the URL:
http://download.eclipse.org/tools/cdt/releases/new
Download the latest version of the CDT SDK (not runtime)
(I'm currently using 2.1.1) By the way CDT doesn't work with Windows ME or Windows 98.
4. Finally, download plugin.zip and unzip the folder within to the plugins directory of your eclipse installation. Restart eclipse.
To make a project. Click on file new project managed make C project. Uncheck the use default button and browse to the folder containing the code you're working on.
Give your project a name (it doesn't have to be the same as the folder containing your code, then click next.
On the following screen choose Microchip Embedded Systems from the dropdown menu. (i know its an odd name. the reason i chose was in case i felt like adding support for other microchip processors later) Make sure that both FRC Debug and FRC Release are checked.
Click on finish (not next).
Delete everything other than the two lib files the source and header files, and the linker file (extension .lkr).
Next, go to project, properties (if its grayed out, make sure you've got your project selected) and click on C/C++ Build on the left side.
Choose miscellaneous from the MPLINK linker settings and add your linker file by clicking on the little yellow plus signs next to where it says "Linker File". Unfortuanately you have type the path in yourself. There's no browse feature. Do the same for the library below. Choose either FRC_library.lib or FRC_altimeters.lib. For both of these options make sure that only one library/linker file is selected, or else bad stuff happens. Now click on build all from the project menu and you're ready. Errors during compilation should show up in the problems menu at the bottom of your screen. Errors during linking will be the last thing in the console after a build. The equivalent of make is build all in eclipse. The equivalent of build all is clean. I know its weird but that's how it works. In addition if you would like to build the project each time you save changes check build automatically from the project menu.