Mylar...Why should you get it?

The Mylar plug-in allows you to associate a context of work with a particular eclipse task. What does this mean? Well, after 'activating' a task for the first time, you are provided with a clean slate view in terms of classes, configuration files, etc... in your project. As you begin to navigate the code-base while working the task, the classes and methods you interact with become part of the task's context. The benefit of this is that it reduces 'conceptual overload', therefore, making you more productive. The best way to understand this is to see it in action. On top of that, this 'external navigational memory' is constantly changing based on your code interactions. The context adapts to your current code usage pattern as you are working the task.

The task context can even be shared between developers on the team and associated with various issue tracking solutions (Bugzilla, Trac, Jira). I have yet to try this since my current project does not use the supported issue tracking implementations, but it seems very cool.

I have to admit it, I have been putting off installing this plug-in for some time and I regret that. I think it is one of those things that you need to experience to fully appreciate. If you do any development with Eclipse, get Mylar now!