Eclipse is a free software / open
source platform-independent software framework for delivering what the project
calls "rich-client applications", as opposed to "thin client" browser-based
applications. So far this framework has typically been used to develop IDEs
(Integrated Development Environments), such as the Java IDE called Java
Development Toolkit (JDT) and compiler that comes as part of Eclipse (and which
are also used to develop Eclipse itself). However, it can be used for other
types of client application as well. See the BitTorrent client Azureus for
example.
