Eclipse 3.4.1, OSX and Java 1.6

Eclipse application icon

I recently downloaded Eclipse 3.4.1 for Mac OSX, and tried starting it using the eclipse.app icon. It did not work, and I noticed a message in /var/log/system.log telling me that the JVM could not be loaded.

After some Googling, I found out that Eclipse is not compatible with the new 64bit version of JDK 1.6 for the Mac. After switching back to 1.5 (luckaly Apple ships all JVM's with it's OS) it all worked. Here's how you switch back to JDK 1.5 on a Mac:
cd /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions
sudo ln -fhsv 1.5 CurrentJDK

This makes the CurrentJDK link to point to the 1.5 installation of the Java JDK.

Bonus tip for today: While you're at it, increase the memory used by eclipse by opening the eclipse.app bundle (right click -> show package contents) and edit Contents/MacOS/eclipse.ini. Change the "-Xmx256m" line to read "-Xmx512m", and eclipse should be much happier with you.

Ofcourse there's lots more you can do there, but I always say "keep it simple".