There are several freely available C and C++ development environments available. Most of them have the disadvantage that they are only available for one operating system. Eclipse, however, was written as a cross-platform development environment. Initially just written for Java, it also has a very good C/C++ development mode.

This tutorial describes the installation of the Eclipse Project CDT (C/C++ Development Tools) plugin on the Windows platform (running under Linux is mentioned at the end of this tutorial). It describes the entire installation process in detail and is intended for developers who are familiar with the Eclipse environment and would like to develop C/C++ applications in this environment. As a result, it has been assumed that Eclipse has already been installed and that the developer has a basic understanding of how to use Eclipse.