Showing Java Processes Launched from Eclipse

Post date: Oct 6, 2013 2:43:21 PM

As someone who grades student programming assignments, it isn't unusual to get a lot of rogue Java processes running in the background. Windows Task Manager is not good at distinguishing these from other processes that may be legit (like Eclipse itself); they all show up at "java" or "javaw" instances.

The Debug view (note: different from the Debug perspective) will show all processes (and their sub-threads) launched from within Eclipse, so it is a handy way to find out which student's work is, say, stuck in an infinite loop. Or didn't set the default JFrame close behavior as EXIT_ON_CLOSE. People who use the debugger regularly know this. The Debug View can be added to any perspective, so I put it in the regular Java perspective in order to keep an eye on what's running in the background.

I'd argue the Debug View is poorly-named, which may prevent people from finding it when needed. So maybe "The Goog" will index this for people trying to find the answer.