Java, JRuby, and Eclipse

I've been able to download and run a few Java programs
without much pain, but it looks like I'm going to start
using some Java apps (eg, the Pentaho BI Platform) more
seriously.

It would be great to have a good support environment to
help me tweak things, make changes, and rebuild World +
Dog without needing to grok the entire pile of software.
It would also be really cool to be able to interact eith
the code from irb, rather than Java.

So, given some relatively typical humongous Java app:

  *  How likely is it that I could use Eclipse to build
     it, explore the code, etc?  Is this generally a
     worthwhile thing to try?

  *  How hard is it likely to be to add JRuby to the mix,
     in a way that would allow me to call arbitrary Java
     methods from irb, etc?

-r
-- 
Technical editing and writing, programming, and web development:
  http://www.cfcl.com/rdm/resume

Contact information: rdm@xxxxxxxx, +1 650-873-7841


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