I’m using  a custom eclipse installation. The ubuntu repositories package is too old, so I always update my eclipse installation from the eclipse website. I install it to /opt/eclipse. If you’re using the default installation package, just look for yor install forlder, probably somewhere near /usr/share.

Now, I assume you installed the subclipse plugin, a nice SVN client. This client uses JavaHL libraries to communicate to the svn program istelf, and  unfortunately, this libraries installation is up to you. If you do not have them, subclipse will complain about missing libraries each time you need to do somthing svn-related. So, to fix if:

1. Install the javaHL libraries:
   sudo apt-get install libsvn-java
2. Tell eclipse where to look for them. Edit the file /opt/eclipse/eclipse.ini (or /your-eclipse-path/eclipse.ini), and locate the line:
   -vmargs
   Now just below this line, add the following one:
   -Djava.library.path=/usr/lib/jni
3. Happy coding!.

It is not new that monospaced fonts make an overall better alignment, improving the scan speed while reading code. There are a lot of Monospaced fonts there. The one I’ve been using is called Consolas. Just google it and you’ll find a lot more. ProggyFonts, Pragmata and Inconsolata are great too. However, proportional fonts are in general a bit easier on the eye. I compensate this modifying the color scheme of my editors.

Color schemes can help you improve redability on the code while providing a more comfortable experience using less contrast between the background of the screen and the font. My personal solution for many years was just setting the background color of my code editors in a medium gray tone instead the default white. Just this small change already did a great good to my eyes.

Recently, I’ve been looking for real color schemes, with appropiate syxtax color styles. There’s a lot written about this. In my search I came up with Zenburn, a Vim color scheme, and I inmediately fell in love with it.

Using Zenburn with the Consolas font is in my opinion one of the best editor setups for coding during long hours, specially in the dark.

Here you have some links:

Zenburn For Visual Studio (Jeff Attwood)
Zenburn Remixed for Visual Studio (more relaxed highlight and command console). This is the one I’m using, just with a smaller font.
Zenburn for Notepad++ (better than the integrated one)
Zenburn for Vim
Zenburn (and more) for Eclipse and CDT

Gvim Zenburn