1.5.8. Perspectives

A perspective is a set of Views. e.g. Eclipse has C/C++ perspective and Debug perspective

Why do we need perspectives? Take an example. While developing code, user would be interested in Tasks, Bookmarks, Compilation Warnings/Errors but, while debugging the code, these are totally irrelevant things. On the other hand, Breakpoints, Local Variables, Watch Expressions become much more important.

A perspective can be termed as the look of Eclipse. When user jumps around from C/C++ perspective and Debug perspective (or any other perspective), the look changes.

Perspectives can be controlled from Window in menubar.

Eclipse Menu - Window

  • Window → Open Perspective — Select a perspective
  • Window → Show View — Add a view to the current perspective
  • Window → Save Perspective As — Create a custom perspective
  • Window → Reset Perspective — Remove the customization

Once a view is opened, Eclipse remembers it and associates it with that perspective.